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Message in a Best Of
What can we learn from an SN&R
Best Of Sacramento issue—from 10
years ago?
On Monday, I read our
Best Of issue from 2004.
Back then, our writers’
picks were about how cool it
was that there was finally a
Trader Joe’s. In this issue, we
get excited about things like
locovore vegetarian restaurants, and craft beer and
artisanal cheese bars.
In 2004, there was a lame
nightclub photo site called
Napkin Nights, which won the
Readers’ Choice for best website.
Today, we just take selfies. Then,
Readers’ Choice winners included
now-defunct hangs like True Love
Coffeehouse and Toyroom Gallery,
the latter the only reason to visit
“The Kay” in ’04. Losing those places
was tragic at the time. But today,
coffeehouses and art galleries are
ubiquitous and exciting.
I wonder if people are embarrassed about the things that got
them pumped 10 years ago? The
Cheesecake Factory opened in ’04
and had just won Best New Restaurant (beating out Zocalo). I remember hearing of hourlong waits for a
table. Would you wait more than 10
minutes at Cheesecake in 2014?
It used to be OK to eat at chains,
too. In ’04, McDonald’s won best
french fries and Starbucks was the
best coffeehouse. Even if we allowed
chain businesses to compete in Best
Of Sacramento today (we don’t), I
can’t imagine those places beating
out LowBrau or Temple Coffee.
Oh, Sacramento, you’re so cool
and grown-up now. Your palette’s so
refined, and you’re drinking beautifully. Thanks for cutting back on the
double-vanilla lattes and mousse
cakes with graham-cracker crust.
Although you have lost your edge
a bit. Consider: The Readers’ Choice
winner in 2004 for Best Political
Battle? “A new Kings arena.”

1124 Del Paso Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95815
Phone (916) 498-1234
Sales Fax (916) 498-7910
Editorial Fax (916) 498-7920
Website www.newsreview.com
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using recycled newsprint whenever available.
Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in SN&R are
those of the authors and not of Chico Community
Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to
reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the
paper. SN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of
the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in
condensed form and to edit them for libel.
Advertising Policies All advertising is subject to the
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and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for
the truthful content of their advertising message.

“Many of them come in daily and everyone knows their name,”
Stone says. “I can’t tell you how many patients I look forward to seeing every day.”
Those relationships are the reason Stone says he is excited about moving to
a new location in October, where the dispensary will have more space to help
more patients with services that go beyond supplying medical marijuana.
As a nonprofit, Florin Wellness Center offers additional services free of
charge for their patients, including massage sessions, chiropractic adjustments
and Pilates, yoga and medicinal marijuana education classes. But when Florin
Wellness Center relocates, Stone says they’ll be able to offer even more services.
“We are not just a place that takes your money and sends you on your way,”
Stone says. “We want to give back to our patients, and we want to do things
that we think will actually benefit them — and that they will appreciate.”

The dispensary also operates a compassion program, which provides medicinal cannabis for free to patients who are experiencing a financial hardship or
are severely ill. Currently, Florin Wellness Center has about 60 patients in the
program, but Stone says they plan to let more participate in the future.
Photo courtesy of Florin Wellness Center

A

t Florin Wellness Center patients are like family to the staff. Manager Timothy Stone says the front room where they walk in is often
compared to the set of the TV show “Cheers.”

Those benefits include having an attorney provide free legal advice on the
guidelines and regulations for growing your own medicinal marijuana plants.
Because those rules are continuously changing, Stone says many patients don’t
know what is and isn’t legal.
Manager Timothy Stone says the staff at Florin Wellness Center view their patients as family.

“We want to give back to our patients, and
we want to do things that we think will
actually benefit them — and that they
will appreciate.”

“We develop personal relationships with a lot of our patients and learn about
their backgrounds and situations,” Stone says. “Depending on their needs, we
can meet with them, and if they have some substantial problem keeping them
from getting their medication, we can help them out. Someone who suffers from
severe pain, but is on a fixed income would be someone who would qualify. We
review their situation every six months.”

Timothy Stone, Manager at Florin Wellness Center

Once the new location officially open, Stone says he’s hoping for a large turnout
for their free services. So far, the initial response has been really positive.
Florin Wellness Center will also offer free cooking classes for patients who
choose to ingest their cannabis instead of smoking it. While the dispensary does
offer a variety of edibles, Stone says the classes will be geared toward patients
who have dietary restrictions or needs. There will also be cannabis culture classes
taught for people who are completely unfamiliar with the medicine.

“We’re looking forward to accommodating that demand when we open. It all
goes back to helping our patients. We really care about them,” Stone says.

“For many of our patients, this is a last resort for them,” Stone says. “Maybe
they felt like cannabis was too taboo before, but they didn’t know what else to
do. We show them the different ways to ingest and use cannabis. We teach them
about different equipment and how to use it.”
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SN&R | 09.11.14

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BEFORE

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AFTER

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8

|

SN&R | 09.11.14

“It’s the summer of love because I just met my girlfriend.”

Asked at K Street Mall:

How will you remember the summer of 2014?

Vivianee Herrera

Marcia Lamson

mother

unemployed

It’s the summer of Isabella,
my daughter. She was
born in April, and she’s
my first. Her dad picked
the name. Life as a new
mom is actually really
good. I have a really easy
baby. It’s a lot of changes,
changing myself and my
priorities, how I spend
my time.

Mark Reichel

state worker

I’ve had some health
problems. So far I’m
pretty good, but I just got
out of the hospital. I will
remember the summer
as a lesson; you play the
game and sometimes you
get something you don’t
want. I got cirrhosis
from medicines, things
like that.

Visually

Daniel Rose
It’s the first time my
co-workers asked me to
join them for coffee. It’s
how I’ll remember the
summer. Also, the summer
of drought. We don’t flush
our toilet all the time now.

Nesta Duarte

Allison Hoffman

attorney

student

I did a lot of small trips. The
southwest of Anchorage
[Alaska] is the most
beautiful place on earth. The
Kenai Peninsula and Lake
Clark National Park were
great. We did a bear camp
there. We flew in, stayed in a
camp surrounded by brown
bears and grizzly bears.
Beautiful. It’s the summer of
Alaskan brown bears for me.

Original

bookkeeper

It was a lot more humid
than last summer. I moved
here from Connecticut after
living in Belgium. I liked
Concerts in the Park. It’s
the summer of love because
I just met my girlfriend
here for the first time.

Diseases, wars and drought,
unfortunately. This summer
I got engaged, too. As long
as the world is still here,
I’ve got a great life. It’s the
summer of horror for the
world, though. I can’t even
watch TV without seeing
Ebola in the United States.
I’m glad to be alive. I’ve
got my daughter and we’re
shopping.

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Re â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being Mark S. Allenâ&#x20AC;? by Jonathan Mendick (SN&R Feature Story, August 28):
Was shocked by your Feature Story on Mark S. Allen. That TV guy annoys
me on so many levels. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a veritable hack; his voice, his face, his everything
is irritating. I see him all the time. And now to have him
letter of
the week staring at me from newsstands all over town! Sacramento and SN&R deserve better. Such a well-crafted,
skillfully written story about a wretched hive of scum. I feel like I know him
well enough to speak with authority on the matter.
Mark S. Allen

Strong consensus

Hip-hop in good hands

Re â&#x20AC;&#x153;Labor painsâ&#x20AC;? by Cosmo Garvin
(SN&R News, September 4):
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedres told The Sacramento
Bee that there was a unanimous
decision by the labor councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive board to fire Camp. But CLC
Vice President Dean Murakami,
who represents the Los Rios College
Federation of Teachers, said he was
never included in that decision.â&#x20AC;?
Translation: We asked everyone
who agrees with us whether they
agree with us. The decision was
unanimous.
Mark Jones
Sacramento

Re â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hip-hop is dead, long live
hip-hopâ&#x20AC;? by Janelle Bitker (SN&R
Music, September 4):
I appreciated the article about
Aerial and his new album release,
Revivolution, because his story is a
hip-hop story that deserves coverage. His careful consideration about
the messages that go into songs and
his willingness to be a role model
in hip-hop is admirable. We hear
so many stories about the most
extravagant, the most hedonistic
and the most separated from actual
reality that we may often forget
what truth sounds like. Aerialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
album is a breath of fresh air. Also,
the fact that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 22 and having his
album-release party on his birthday
at the Sol Collective means that
Sacramentoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next generation of
hip-hop is in good hands.
Paul Willis
Sacramento

Changing
classical-music world
Re â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sactown symphony sagaâ&#x20AC;?
by Jeff Hudson (SN&R Stage,
September 4):
There are lots of professional
musicians in the greater Sacramento
area who were not members of
the Sacramento Philharmonic who
have bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and PhDs
in music. The growth of music
programs in universities has assured
this. There are many who have done
their â&#x20AC;&#x153;10,000 hours.â&#x20AC;? Some of these
play in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;semiproâ&#x20AC;? orchestras
(Auburn, Folsom, Camellia) and
provide musical leadership. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
a good thing, because audiences
who might not want to drive an
hour to Sacramento or Davis or
San Francisco can enjoy good
and often exciting live symphonic
performances in their local areas
by people who are friends and
neighbors.
Maybe this changing sceneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;
which I think may not be unique
to Sacramentoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is symptomatic of
a cultural and economic change as
regards classical music that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll
only understand on the macro
scaleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;maybe over the course of
decades.
Kay Miller
Folsom

Â online buzz

On whether lOOking at Jennifer
lawrenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leaked nude pics makes
yOu a Jerk:
Care more about leaked celeb photos than the FBIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to hack
into your accounts? then youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re
what is wrong with this country!
MC JustMatt

via facebook

Email your letters to
sactoletters@
newsreview.com.

Does it REALLY effect her if
someone does look? I mean they
are there and people are looking
anyways, so what difference does
it make?

Online Buzz
contributions are not
edited for grammar,
spelling or clarity.

K.k. Hickey

via facebook

On the â&#x20AC;&#x153;VOte yes On lâ&#x20AC;? facebOOk
page paying fOr likes:
Wow, so thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s who pays to promote their pages on Facebook...I
always wondered. Seemed like the
Internet equivalent of stuffing a
zucchini down the front of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
trousers.

The school
of homeless
knocks
Nearly 12,000
students are without
permanent housing in
Sacramento County
Growing up in the East Bay, Makeda Johnson didn’t
always have a place to live. Now residby
ing in Woodland and a mother herself,
Raheem
the 23-year-old college student said her
F. Hosseini
parents’ poverty struggles meant multiple
moves and way too many new schools,
ra h e emh@
newsr evie w.c om
where she struggled to get to class, make
the grade and fit in.
During those tumultuous formative
years, Johnson can’t recall meeting anyone
like her or her siblings. “Honestly, I kind of
felt like we were the only ones,” she said.
In reality, they were among thousands.
According to a policy brief out this
week from the California Homeless Youth
Project, more kids than ever before are
hitting the textbooks and the streets.
The statewide research and policy initiative analyzed federal enrollment data for
the 2012-13 school year and discovered that
the number of California schoolchildren
without permanent housing continued to
rise—five years after the Great Recession
supposedly ended.
Nearly 270,000 students, or 21 percent
of the nation’s known homeless student
population, experienced some form of
homelessness during the previous school
year in California, equaling 4 percent of
the state’s student body. That’s double the
national trend.
In Sacramento County, at least 11,924
schoolchildren—equal to 5 percent of the
enrolled student population—experienced
homelessness last year, according to an
SN&R review of data. The largest proportion—21.7 percent—was enrolled at public
and charter schools within the Sacramento
City Unified School District.
While Twin Rivers Unified School
District placed third, its poverty issues
were the most pronounced in another
way. During the 2013-14 school year, 87.6
percent of the 31,122 students enrolled
in Twin Rivers schools qualified for free
or reduced-price meals, according to the
Ed-Data website. That’s the highest rate
among Sacramento County school districts.
These students represent the new homeless—refugees of a rotten economy who
skirt the H-word label and don’t always
seek help.
BEFORE

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NEWS

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Shahera Hyatt was a
homeless student herself
before she became director
of the California Homeless
Youth Project. The project
released a policy paper this
week showing that schools
in the state witnessed a
39-percent increase in
homeless students between
2009 and 2013.

“I can tell you that a good percentage
that we consider homeless by definition
don’t consider themselves homeless,” said
Monica McRho, longtime coordinator for
SCUSD’s Parker Family Resource Center
& Homeless Services Office. “There’s a lot
of people that will never ask for help.”
Back when McRho started her job as
a liaison to the district’s impoverished
students in 1989, the 300-odd kids requiring
her services were chronic cases, experiencing lengthy bouts of homelessness in families that wrestled with extenuating social
vexes like addiction or mental illness.

Education considers a student homeless if
he or is without a fixed, adequate nighttime residence at some point during the
school year.)
McRho applies a soft touch with these
families, counting their numbers using
standardized enrollment forms that describe
living situations without using the word
“homeless,” and relying on them and their
schools to reach out to her.
That won’t always happen. As students
age, they get better at hiding. More than
half of the state’s homeless students were
found in pre-kindergarten through fifth
grade. Only 27 percent were identified once
they reached high school.
These students
When Johnson lived with her mother
as
a
younger child, the stigma of sleeping
represent the new
in a car was masked through artful play.
homeless—refugees of
“My mom made a game of it,” she said.
“Elementary school is a little easier because
a rotten economy who
kids aren’t as judgmental.”
skirt the H-word label
Later, when Johnson was with her
and don’t always
remarried father, she said there was an
unofficial rule to conceal the family’s situaseek out help.
tion and not ask for help.
Districts haven’t always put much effort
When the economy tanked, her phone
into identifying homeless students themstarted ringing with the harried voices of the selves. Less than nine years ago, 40 percent
newly unemployed and foreclosed, folks in
of California school districts claimed they
desperate need of a little help to get them
had no homeless students whatsoever.
through the month—and not getting it.
Even today’s dismal statistics come
In recent years, the number of homeless
with big asterisks, as they don’t include
students in the district exploded to nearly
homeless children who aren’t attending or
2,500. That spike, which coincided with the have dropped out of school, or the often
recession and has yet to taper off, warped
older students who have hidden their lack
the complexion of the homeless student
of housing for fear of being reported to law
body as well.
enforcement or child welfare authorities.
The vast majority of these youths—in
While many teachers and administrators
the district and across the state—double
knew of Johnson’s situation, she said they
up with friends or relatives in homes that
became less helpful the older she got. In
aren’t their own. (The Department of
high school, teachers were more apt to offer
B E S T O F S A C R A M E N T O | A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R |

her skepticism or pity, when all she really
needed were books and supplies. “If you
don’t have the materials, you fall back and
[get left behind],” she said.
That nearly happened a few times
during her education career, even though
Johnson was a precocious student whose
teachers initially placed her in gifted
programs. She attended five different high
schools before transitioning to a continuation school and earning her diploma shy
of her 18th birthday. She’s now close to
getting her associate’s degree, and plans
on majoring in psychology at Sacramento
State University.
When she addressed the state
Legislature a few months ago, Johnson
stressed the importance that simple
remedies—like access to transportation and
books—can play in a student’s ability to
attend school.
Knowing one’s rights as a homeless
student is also huge, says Shahera Hyatt.
The director of the California Youth
Homeless Project also endured multiple
bouts of homelessness throughout her
school career. She and her family struggled
to track down immunization records, fibbed
about having permanent addresses and
bummed rides from others just to keep her
enrolled.
Turns out they didn’t need to. Students
have the right to immediate enrollment
whether they can produce health records
or addresses of any kind, Hyatt explained.
Homeless students also have the right to
free transportation.
“There were a lot of things we didn’t
know,” she said.
Some lessons come outside of a
classroom.
Ω

09.11.14

|

SN&R

|

13

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So dreamy
Sacramento city schools still dealing
with problems of yesteryear
Last week, Bites reported on the sacking of Sacramento
Bee editorial-page writer Pia Lopez.
There are some good reasons to question the fairness of her firing. But Bites
didn’t forget that Lopez was a driving force
behind some of the Bee’s most ideological—and really remarkably unfair—editorials
on teachers and education. So Bites wondered:
Would the Bee tone down the teacher bashing
ARvin
G
with Lopez gone?
O
SM
CO
by
Nope. Team Scoopy is just as skewed
cosmog@ newsrev iew.c om as ever. The weekend before students
returned to Sacramento City Unified
schools, the Bee editorial page chided brand
new Superintendent José Banda for meeting
three times with the Sacramento teachers union.
Three times!
The Bee didn’t mention that the district is in
the middle of negotiating a new contract with
teachers—which includes the tricky problem of
crafting a new teacher-evaluation system.
Almost as bad as meeting with teachers,
the Bee complained that Banda has not once
met—not even once—with Sacramento
Mayor Kevin Johnson.
Under state law, Johnson has no say at all in
the running of Sacramento schools, though he
sure would like to. In fact, Johnson is a leader in
the national movement for the “mayoralization” of
schools, breaking teacher unions, and expansion
of charter schools.
In spite of all that—well, probably because
of all that—the Bee insists that Banda, “make
the effort to have a relationship with the city’s
celebrity mayor and his wife.”
Or, Banda could instead focus on his job,
steering clear of Johnson, the Bee, and their
agendas. Wonder which he will choose?

498.7949

and press a 4-digit code

It’s not so surprising that a plum job for
Raymond was waiting on the other side of the
revolving door. But what about the family thing?
Carol Ting, the Stuart Foundation’s chief
operating officer, told Bites, “That was his plan.
But then the recruiter came along and offered
him his dream job.”
Dream job, huh? Anyway, Raymond slipped out
the back door in a hurry, to take a dreamier job,
or to escape whatever nightmares had cropped
up here in Sacramento. Either way, even in his
absence he was an important presence at the
school-board-candidates forum held in Oak Park
last Sunday.
The forum was hosted by the Black Parallel
School Board. And challengers hammered incumbents on the district’s top-down decision making
and its treatment of low-income and minority
communities.
One challenger, Jonathan Tran, said he’s
running to “rebuild trust” in the district and
give voice to “communities where students and
families are sick and tired of the district making
decisions about them, without them.”

Would the Bee tone
down the teacher
bashing?
Anna Molander, running against incumbent
Jay Hansen, likewise called for a more democratic approach. “We need to turn our budgeting
process around. We need to budget what we
want to see in our schools, not what they tell us
at Serna Center that we can have.”
More to come on the school-board races
in the near future. For now, Bites can’t help
noticing that even Raymond’s supporters on the
school board are now acknowledging the past
superintendent’s autocratic style.
Incumbent Darrell Woo told audience
members, “I understand and appreciate that
Jonathan Raymond was not collaborative. But
now he’s gone.”
Woo’s fellow board member, Hansen, likewise said there “was a lot of divisiveness under
the previous superintendent,” but that the situation has “improved a lot” since Raymond left.
They, along with incumbent board member
Jeff Cuneo, all mentioned that Banda, the guy
they just hired to replace Raymond, has a reputation for collaboration.
Great, but these are the same incumbent
school-board members who went along with
Raymond’s destructive school closures, who
tacitly approved his CORE experiment, and who
looked the other way while Raymond tanked
relationships with employees and community
groups. His record is their record, too.
Ω

The Bee is clearly still sore about the loss of
the previous superintendent, Jonathan Raymond.
Raymond seemed to enjoy sticking it to teachers
(and the occasional principal) and generally
followed the playbook for corporate-ed reform.
He left quite suddenly during the last school
year. The public reason was that he wanted his
kids to be closer to their grandparents back in
Boston. Surely a tough decision, to leave what
VINTAGE FURNITURE & HOUSEWARES STORE
he described as his “dream job.” But family
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comes first.
This summer, Raymond took a job as president of an education nonprofit called the Stuart
Foundation—in San Francisco.
The Stuart Foundation is a major funder of
something called the California Office to Reform
Education. You may recall that Raymond
committed Sac City schools to participate in the
CORE, to help fund it, and to tie teacher evaluaentire purchase with
tions to student test scores as part of the deal.
mention
of of this ad
This was intensely controversial—and done
valid through 9.14.14, cannot be combined
without public input or any vote of the Sac
with any other discounts of prmotions
City school board. The board only reversed
Raymond’s decision after he had bailed, and after
protests from teachers, parents and community
1021 R ST. • SAC 95811 • (In the Arthouse Building) • FACEBOOK.COM/MARKVINTAGE
groups.
B E F O R E | N E W S | B E S T O F S A C R A M E N T O | A R T S & C U L T U R E | A F T E R | 09.11.14 | SN&R | 15

10%off

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es da vi s
PH OT O BY w

!
e
r
e
is h

T

his is my 11th SN&R Best of
Sacramento issue. That qualifies me as an expert, maybe,
so I might get away with saying
that this year’s is one of the best.

Just look at those section openers, designed by
SN&R art director Hayley Doshay, and how they
offer a fun peek into the vibrant worlds of Phoebe
Verkouw’s fashion picks or Vinny Lazzaretto’s
tasty ravioli. I dig ’em. Plus all the other lively

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photography of our favorite people and places.
A special thanks to our Republic FC stars, Mickey
Daly (left) and Emrah Klimenta (right).

There are also the usual writer’s picks. Those
are how I learned that I can’t wait to ditch work
and go play Monster Mini Golf in Rancho Cordova.
And see how people react to staff writer Janelle
Bitker’s search for the best cookie in Sacramento,
which I’m sure will be controversial (hint: it’s
gluten-free).

the contest—haven’t for years—so the winning
restaurants and businesses are all locally owned.
There are also some new winners on the block this
year. Hmm ...
Anyway, it’s all in fun. Congrats, everyone!
Thanks for reading.

And what of those Best of Sac Readers’ Picks?
We don’t allow chains or big corporations into

BEst of Sacramento

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—Nick Miller

nickam@newsreview.com

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en stot ask
B
aso

PHOTOs BY wes davis

re

Melty,
delicious
chocolate
chips

'Gmotilk?’

by

Janelle
Bitker

janelleb@
newsreview.com

SN&R’s monster
challenge to discover the
best cookie in Sacramento

Ii

t started with a simple question:
“Who makes the best cookie in
Sacramento?” We had our own ideas,
but then we hunted down bakeries all
over the city and asked for their bestsellers, too—just in case we were wrong.

powdered
sugar, (not
blow, yo)
cocoa powder
(keep away
froM dogs)

We were totally wrong.
SN&R’s three food critics tried 12 of
Sacramento’s greatest cookies, side by side, in a
blind tasting. None of our initial favorites
placed in the top three.

Judges awarded points for appearance, texture
and flavor—the latter being the most important,
of course—and cookies could receive a maximum
of 60 total points. (And to everyone’s surprise, the
winning cookie was gluten-free.)
Yes, the official best damn cookie in Sacramento,
according to Garrett McCord, Jonathan Mendick
and Ann Martin Rolke, is the chocolate crackle
from Pushkin’s Bakery.

Judges complimented its
“crunchy exterior and nice, fudgy
middle.” One judge gave it a
perfect score of 20, and it nabbed
an overall score of 50. The “rich,
super chocolatey” cookie goes for
$2.75, and while it’s gluten-free
and uses almond milk, note that
it’s not vegan.
Close behind in second place
was Freeport Bakery’s chocolatechip cookie with 48 points. All
judges agreed it was the best classic chocolate chip of the lot—five
were entered in total—and loved its
“soft and chewy” texture and how
it felt “most like homemade.” And
at 95 cents, it was also the cheapest
cookie in the competition.
With 47 points, third place went
to Estelle’s Patisserie’s Cowboy
cookie, packed with chocolate
chunks, pecans and coconut flakes.
Judges called it “hearty,” “unique”
and said “the subtlety of flavors
makes it great.” The Cowboy cookie
is on the pricier end at $3 apiece, but
it’s notably large and filling.

As the blind-tasting organizer,
I had no say in these results. But I
did eat the leftovers on the table,
and I must say, the top three cookies were each wonderful in their
own unique ways. Honorable
mention goes to Selland’s MarketCafe for my new personal favorite
Sacto cookie, the salted caramel
sandwich: Salty, sweet, caramelly,
chewy and only $1.35. But palates
are different, so you should probably taste all 12 and decide for
yourself. Pushkin’s Bakery,
1820 29th Street; (916) 376-7752;
www.pushkinsbakery.com;
Freeport Bakery, 2966 Freeport
Boulevard; (916) 442-4256;
www.freeportbakery.com;
Estelle’s Patisserie, 901 K Street;
(916) 551-1500; www.estelles
patisserie.com;
Selland’s
Market-Cafe, 5340 H Street;
(916) 736-3333; www.sellands.com. E

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Best tequila ice cream
JB Ice Cream Nevería & Paletería de Michoacán
If the thought of tequila awakens bad memories of failed attempts to perfectly coordinate salt licks, and throat burns and lime
chasers, worry not: There is another option.
Tequila ice cream exists in Sacramento,
and it will change the way you feel about
tequila. Light and refreshing, this boozy
treat is handmade daily by an artisan trained
in Michoacán (the Mexican capital of ice
cream) with two bottles of imported tequila,

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lime, agave and water. That cringing afterburn doesn’t happen, either. This ice cream
goes down smooth. You may not taste the
tequila, but be warned, you will feel it.
2201 Northgate Boulevard, (916) 514-2309,
www.facebook.com/jbicecreamneveria
paleteria. A.H.

Best pho Before noon
Pho Saigon
This place is like Denny’s for people like me
who want hot, steamy pho before noon. And,
no, not always when I’m hungover—but it’s
the optimal remedy for that, too. Anyway,
Pho Saigon is the one near Fruitridge Road
that says Pho Saigon on the front, duh.
This is important because despite what The
Sacramento Bee’s food critic proclaims about
a location with a similar name, this spot is
the true jam. Booming and affordable pho,
with rich, beefy broth redolent of star anise
and spices. I get mine in what I call “baby
style”—steak and noodles—but you can go
all out with blood or meatballs or whatever
you like. So, pho your mimosa and see you
at Saigon at 9 a.m. 5304 Stockon Boulevard,
(916) 457-5580. N.M.

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Best ice cream
for Breakfast
Sweet Dozen
There are few unhealthier things to eat
for breakfast than an ice-cream doughnut.
Especially when it’s one from Sweet Dozen,
with Gunther’s Ice Cream and a topping of
your choice (I had Oreo). The doughnut comes
out piping hot, with the glaze still sticky and
melted. The best part: Sweet Dozen isn’t as
packed as the other place in south Sacramento
that’s popular for its ice-cream doughnuts
(Baker’s Donuts)—plus, it’s supercreative.
Other fillings include coffee-flavored ice
cream, green-tea ice cream, and vanilla ice
cream with bacon and maple. Now that’s
breakfast. 5207 Madison Avenue, Suite E;
(916) 344-2000; www.sweetdozen.com. J.M.

Just look at that burrito! is it any surprise
that Chando’s taCos is a readers’ piCk for
best food truCk? (and best taCos, too!)

serviceable enough, but does
anyone actually go to a pub to
unwind with a salad? Luckily,
Stirling Bridges Restaurant and
Pub offers a surprising variety of
meat-free appetizers. Start with
deep-fried pickles or cauliflower
hot wings with a side of buffalo
sauce. Hand-rolled pretzels will
soak up the extra beer your
friends bought you. A bowl of
lightly salted, roasted shishito
peppers are pleasantly mild,
until you bite into an unusually fiery specimen and have
to order a third pint to cool the
burn. 5220 Manzanita Avenue
in Carmichael, (916) 331-2337,
www.stirlingbridges.com. B.C.

Best place to drink
if you’re Broke
The Mercantile Saloon
Five bucks doesn’t get much
these days. Even the nastiest
bottom-shelf, plastic-bottle hobo
hooch is going to run about
$6.50. But the Mercantile Saloon
is a magical place that turns $5
into a Jack and Coke with half a
bottle of whiskey in it. The Merc
features colorful clientele that’s
trying to get drunk for the joog,
just like you. If you’re frightened
by gay bars, the Merc (or planet
Earth) probably isn’t the best
place for you. But if there were
ever a force to defeat homophobia, it’s alcoholism. 1928 L Street,
(916) 447-0792. R.R.

Best guilt-free
potato chip
Plates2go
photos by steven chea

Besides being a training program
for women through St. John’s
Program for Real Change and
a friendly and tasty lunch spot,
Plates2go on L Street serves
homemade kettle-style potato
chips with its sandwiches. Sure,
maybe chips aren’t part of your
diet, but you are kind of eating
them for charity, aren’t you?
Shove a few more into your
mouth: It’s the right thing to
do. OK, so there are salads at
Plates2go, too. Good salads.
But they don’t come with chips,
so why bother? 1725 L Street,
(916) 426-3884, www.plates2
go.org. G.G.

Best diy
restaurant
experience
Quan Nem Ninh Hoa
Normally I don’t go to a restaurant to prepare my own food,
but the roll-them-yourself spring
rolls at Quan Nem Ninh Hoa
are a different story. The house
specialty—nem nuong—feeds
two people and literally comes

28 | SN&R | 09.11.14

with two boatloads of stuff (the
platters are big, boat-shaped
dishes): charbroiled pork; crispy
egg-roll wrappers; weaved
vermicelli noodles; pickled pork;
and a thick, bright dipping sauce.
Plus a bounty of fresh vegetables:
mint, cilantro, cucumber, carrots,
daikon, lettuce. Take a wrapper,
spin it in water and load it up to
create a perfect, bulging, lumpy
spring roll of deliciousness.
Would you want it any other
way? 6450 Stockton Boulevard,
(916) 428-3748. J.B.

Best reason
to visit pavilions
if you’re
not filthy rich
Insight Coffee Roasters
If you’ve never needed a yachting wardrobe or a $100 steak
dinner, you’ve probably never
been to Pavilions. This high-end
retail plaza caters to the wealthy,
but the recently added Insight
Coffee Roasters is accessible
even to those with only a few
dollars wadded in a ripped
jeans pocket. The interior is a
gorgeous, airy space, full of natural light and carefully designed
nooks for studying or quiet
conversation. Enjoy the same
quality coffee and baked goods
as Insight’s downtown locations,
as well as plenty of free parking.
Just don’t door ding the Lexus
next to you. 566 Pavilions Lane,
www.insightcoffee.com. B.C.

Best neighBorhood
Beer expert
Keenan Gorgis
at Curtis Park Market
For years, the little corner
market at 24th Street and Second
Avenue in Curtis Park was just
like any other Stop and Shoptype stores: dusty and stocked
with junk food and 40 ouncers.
Then Keenan Gorgis bought
the place in 2012 and started
stocking some of his favorite
brews. Slowly, largely via word
of mouth, Gorgis’ shop evolved
into a craft-beer nirvana, earning
him a reputation as the go-to
guy on all things hoppy, malty
and ABV. Sure, you’ll still
find convenience-store staples
(the same old Bud Light or
Miller High Life swill), but
there are also shelves upon
shelves of Belgian, French
and German imports—not to
mention a healthy sampling
of Sac’s best local brewers.
Don’t worry, you can still
pick up a can of Pringles and
a Slim Jim, too. Dinner, yo.
2703 24th Street; (916) 456-6488,
www.facebook.com/curtispark
market. R.L.

Best
mouthgasm
Vampire Penguin
To merely call this trendy
dessert “shaved ice” is an
injustice. Vampire Penguin’s
signature dessert isn’t the
chunky, syrupy ice rock in a
soggy paper cone from your
childhood. Its Taiwaneseinspired version is fluffy, light
as air and instantly melts into
a mouthgasm, induced by its
silky-smooth texture. Unique
specialty flavors like Snow
Tiger (Thai and milk-tea
snow, Oreos and condensed
milk), and Mexican Candy
(mango snow with chili and
fruit) will please a grownup palate. A small gallery of
anime-inspired artwork inside
also makes this the perfect
place to end a summer date.
6821 Stockton Boulevard,
Suite 110; www.facebook.com/
vampirepenguin916. A.H.

Best secret taproom
Ruhstaller
Ruhstaller is pretty underground. Literally. Its brewery,
offices and tasting room—
opened just months ago—are
located underneath Sacramento
Downtown Plaza. And because
of its location on K Street,
the windows are covered up,
doors are locked and signage is
virtually nonexistent. To gain
access, you need to ring the
doorbell or make a phone call.
Ruhstaller isn’t trying to be a
trendy speakeasy, though. Once
inside, there’s zero pretension. It’s just a great place
to drink beer—sleek, rustic
and cozy—with Ruhstaller’s
latest hop experiments on tap.
630 K Street, (916) 447-1881,
http://ruhstallerbeer.com. J.B.

Best DisneyLanD
memory in east sac
What’s the Scoop?
banana milkshake
If bananas are your jam, stop
everything you are doing and
go to What’s the Scoop? for its
out-of-this-world milkshake.
It’s simple and straight to
the point: Fresh bananas and
vanilla ice cream all swirled
up together into a thick and
creamy 16-ounce masterpiece.
If you want to get creative,
the staff will custom make
any sort of shake you’d like.
So you can mix it up a bit
by adding a hit of chocolate syrup and some crushed
peanuts—this one conjures
up Disneyland memories, for
sure. 6350 Folsom Boulevard,
Suite 400; (916) 370-7301;
www.whatsthescoop.net. T.D.

Best pLace to Drink a
Brew with your Dog
The Shack
Nothing ends a day better
than a good beer. Unless, of
course, you can enjoy that
cold one with your best friend.
But if your bestie doesn’t wear
shoes and prefers an all-fur
ensemble, it can sometimes be
an issue finding a pup-friendly
place to grab a drink. Look
no further than The Shack.
It has more than 100 different types of beers and a staff
that knows its stuff, not to
mention the place has been an
East Sacramento staple since
1931. Nothing can beat good
food, good beer and you with
your good dog. 5201 Folsom
Boulevard, (916) 457-5997,
http://eastsacshack.com. T.D.

Best juice
to save your Life

Come C See Snack Shop
There’s a lot of great Asian
food and snacks to eat in
this particular plaza in Little
Saigon: dim sum at Asian Pearl
2009, boba at Tapioca Express,
banh mi at Giò Cha Duc Huong
Sandwiches, etc. But don’t
miss out on this new snack
shop when you’re done with
those places. A sign out front
says “Korean and Japanese”
snack shop, but it’s a lot more
extensive than that. Pick up
green-tea flavored Kit Kat,
Oreo and Nestlé Crunch bars;
mochi; and chocolate-covered
pretzel sticks. There’s also
cotton candy, beef jerky and
fresh veggie chips. The best

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Sun & Soil Juice Company
Please allow me to spend the
next 100 words propagandizing
you to drink fresh cold-pressed
fruit or vegetable juice every
day. You will lose weight, feel
healthier and sleep better. Your
craft-beer gut will become less
flagrant, and you’ll never get
that dumb 2 p.m. crash at work
people complain about. But the
best part about Sun & Soil Juice
Company’s potions is that they
taste so much better than other
juices out there. Especially that
green sludge you’ve been juicing at home. Try The Green
Queen with spicy cayenne, or
the Sweet Green, if you want

Best Loiter Bait
The Depot
You’ve quaffed way too many
of the 16 beers on tap at The
Depot, one of the Lavender
Heights’ original nightspots.
And. Need. To. Pee. Well,
you’re in luck. Because, after
you go about your business—or
before, depending on the line
situation—you’ll find distractions that aren’t available in
most neighborhood bars. In the
small hall nook that conjoins
the restroom doors is a vending
machine stocked with snacks,
working payphone (for when
your cell battery dies and you
must tell your friends about
the server in the Speedo)
and free condom dispenser.
With lube. Party responsibly.
2001 K Street, (916) 441-6823,
www.thedepot.net. RFH

Best moment of Zen
Zen Breakfast at Orphan
Breakfast House
With all due respect to the folks
at The Daily Show With Jon
Stewart, our favorite moment
of Zen has less to do with
rib-tickling irony than it does
rib-sticking goodness. Which
is what makes Orphan’s Zen
Breakfast such a soul-centering
experience. Plated with simmering egg whites, steamed spinach, sticky brown rice and tofu
grilled in Orphan’s signature
ginger-soy sauce, this hearty,
flavorful dish is a testament
to the homey establishment’s
commitment to everyday mindfulness. Pair your meal with a
cup of the restaurant’s intense
Brazil Cerrado java, and you’ll
leave this East Sacramento
satellite cafe feeling like Caine
from Kung Fu: calm, focused
and ready for your next
adventure. 3440 C Street,
(916) 442-7370, www.orphan
breakfast.com. RFH

Best of sacramento

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Señors y Señoritas
c o m e

e a t

s
a
t
!
i
j
a
F
THANK YOU FOR VOTING US

BEST SANDWICH
in Elk Grove and nominating us for
Best Sandwich in Sacramento

with its focus on fresh ingredients and
inventive dishes, it’s no wonder mother
earned readers’ top nods for Best chef
(michael thiemann, not pictured), Best new
restaurant and Best place for meat-free eats.

Fall Showcase
Oct. 2, 16, 30 & Nov. 13
4 artists each night will compete for your vote to win cash
prizes and recording time. Winner will be announced at
the end of the series. Get the inside scoop on the showcase
#KUPROSSSSS

Tickets available at all Armadillo Records, or purchase by phone @ 916.443.9202
38

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PHOTO BY wes davis

by

Janelle Bitker

Best Sneaky
event
producers
janelleb@newsreview.com

PHO TO BY wes dav is

roshaun and Maritza davis co-founded unseen heroes,
a “boutique lifestyle events agency,” which is
essentially just fancy business talK for “lots of
fun stuff.”

Unseen Heroes

W

ith a vision and Pinterest board,
the people behind Unseen
Heroes create impeccably
designed, lively communitydriven events. And those events are
remarkably consistently well-attended.
It started with the beloved, award-winning
Good: Street Food + Design Market on Del
Paso Boulevard in 2012. Then, the Heroes were
approached to organize something similar in Oak
Park with a foodie focus. And so they launched
Gather, a monthly block party, which drew big
crowds—nearly 1,500 in August—from all over

run little one, run

.

good

your good cup
runneth over.

MarKet

b
photo

y r o d

e r ic k

c o o n

Sacramento this summer. Around the same time,
the production company was also tapped to
ramp up the Crocker Art Museum’s monthly
Art Mix parties, and now those too have an
extra magic touch.

continued on page

43

ey

behold and gather.

cheers!

drinK and
be Merry.

good tiMes,
good people.
ph ot os c ou

rt es y of u

ns ee n he ro

gather

es

just dan

ce alrea

dy.

suMMer’s alMost gone, but it’s still popsic

le weather.

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photo by shoka

continued from page 39

The Heroes here are Roshaun and Maritza
Davis, a young married couple living in Oak
Park. They met in a public-relations class at
Sacramento State University and immediately
started a business relationship—Maritza wanted
some practice marketing in the entertainment
world, and Roshaun was in a band.
That was in 2006. The couple got approached
by other musicians and artists seeking portfolio help, and soon Unseen Heroes was born.
They offered public relations, marketing, design
and event-production services to artists, small
businesses, entrepreneurs and eventually bigger
corporations. They narrowed down the focus,
calling Unseen Heroes a boutique lifestyle events
agency. They had hands in Hot Italian’s launch,
the Bicycle Film Festival, Dine Downtown and
more—not that anyone really knew.

“We were unseen heroes,” Roshaun says. “We
just stayed behind the scenes.”
Things changed quickly with the success of
Good. Recognition—and clients—poured in. That
wasn’t the intention, though. Awards were never
on the mind.
“We just wanted to get creative and prove
a point—that people don’t need to go to San
Francisco or leave the area to see good design,”
Roshaun says.
The same could be said for food artisans or
an interactive party. It all comes down to civic
pride and bolstering the local creative community.
Roshaun and Maritza both hail from Sacramento,
love the city and are actively creating new events
to show it off— an insider’s neighborhood-tour
program launching this month, for example.
And Roshaun promises more excitement—ideas
abound, and Unseen Heroes is growing.
“There are some ideas where it’s like,
‘You’re crazy girl, it’s never gonna happen,’”
he says. “But they don’t stray far from where
they are now.” www.unseen-heroes.com. E

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BetteR tHan a HoUse paRty: tHe
tHiRD space aRt collective in Davis.

Writers’ picks
Best potty mouth
Laurelle Martin

Listen, we know comedians aren’t known for
their manners. They breathe in cuss words.
Laurelle Martin takes foul-mouthed humor to
another level, however. A much, much lower
level. And thank fucking goodness. Martin’s
comedy—catch her around town at various
stand-up gigs—offers sharp and insightful
commentary on sex, relationships and just life
in general. Need a sampler? Check out her
Twitter feed—Martin posts, uh appropriately,
under the user name Funnyisthenewbigtits for
unfiltered ruminations on everyday living
(“I almost went to the bathroom without
my phone. Like a caveman.”), love (“I’m
going to start referring to my vibrator as
‘my boyfriend.’ Related: my boyfriend and
I had an amazing time last night.”) and
porn clichés (“I think porn is unrealistic.
Why would you order pizza to not eat it?”).
www.twitter.com/laurellemartin. R.L.

Best place to throw
a show that’s not a house
Third Space Art Collective
Seeing bands play at Third Space Art Collective
always reminds me of going to a house show.
Maybe it’s because the room is often filled
with college students who already know each
other. Or maybe it’s that the musicians stand so
close, get so intimate and usually hang around

Best of sacramento

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afterward. Just like a house show—except
that being a collective and whatnot, it’s easy
to experience Third Space on another level.
Pay $50 per month and gain access to the
venue’s art supplies, studio space and—yes—
the ability to throw events. That means house
shows, without wrecking your own house.
946 Olive Drive in Davis, (530) 341-0540,
www.thirdspacedavis.com. J.B.

Best music venue
Behind a driving range
Celebrate that hole in one with a night of
boozing and grooving. Conveniently, at
the Sunrise Golf Course in Citrus Heights,
you don’t have to go far. Back 9 Sports
Bar & Grill is located on the course, with
a full bar, restaurant and live music. Walls
covered with posters commemorating the
local music scene—spot memorabilia from
Cake, the Deftones, Tesla, Arden Park Roots
and so forth—create an ideal setting for the
area’s up-and-coming talent. 7925 Arcadia
Drive in Citrus Heights, (916) 723-1658,
www.facebook.com/back9barandgrill. J.B.

Best pop-up poetry
#TheMostOpenMicInTheCity
It’s a Monday night. You think you’re
just eating burritos and then—bam!—
you’re hit with a poetry-spittin’ flash mob.
#TheMostOpenMicInTheCity is exactly what it
sounds like: an open-mic aiming to be as open as
possible, which means constantly appearing at
different locations and going directly to unsuspecting audiences. Most of the regulars specialize in spoken word or rap, but you never really
know what you’re going to get. Purposefully
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AFTER

Best place to prove
your aim is true
Socal’s Tavern

Back 9 Sports Bar & Grill

A RT S & C U LT U R E

finding the open-mic requires some preparation. Interested parties are instructed to call a
phone number the day of for the secret location.
And, no, it doesn’t stick to a regular weekly
schedule. That’s what makes it so “guerrilla.” www.zfgpromotions.com/themostopen
micinthecity. J.B.

|

Darts and drinking are a longstanding tradition
in many dive bars. There’s just something
about grabbing a drink, then grabbing a fistful
of darts and totally nailing the bull’s-eye that
feels, well, natural. Then again, a bull’s-eye
is usually pretty hard to get on the first try—
which is why practice makes perfect. Socal’s
Tavern has friendly bartenders and reasonably
priced cocktails, so this dimly lit dive makes
for a great place for both novices and masters
to practice that aim. 5200 Folsom Boulevard,
(916) 455-1646. T.D.

Best virtual art gallery
Broadway Augmented
There’s nothing quite like free art that doesn’t
require following the social norms of viewing it while inside a swanky museum. From
September 13 through October 31, all you need
to do is saunter down to Broadway between
21st and Ninth streets with a smartphone or
tablet, download the Augmented Reality app,
and voilà: virtual public art will appear when
you hold up your smart device. The art is
multimedia, and includes “two-dimensional”
wall murals on buildings and “three-dimensional” lanterns that look like they are hanging

off buildings. Another bonus: Walking down
Broadway in pajamas—or whatever ultra-casual
wear you prefer, really—is more acceptable than
wearing them in, say, the Crocker Art Museum.
On Broadway, between 21st and Ninth streets;
www.broadwayaugmented.net. J.M.

Best oBjets d’art de los muertos
Azul Mexican Food and Tequila Bar
Most people slip into this foodie gem—which is
usually overshadowed by its neighbor, that punfriendly beer hall—for the succulent Mexican
grub. But don’t discount the bizarro wall art:
A portrait of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo
hangs prominently on the wall (natch), but it’s
two other pieces that add spicy atmosphere to
Azul’s sleek interior. There’s the somewhat
alien face that’s melting down a vertical canvas
in Technicolor. Even better is the year-round
New Year’s Eve painting: A group of 20-something Latino friends bunch in as if for a photo,
oblivious to the metaphysical threats hidden in
plain sight—freakish demon babies and flames
nipping at the edges. A perfect distillation of the
joy and danger in every bite. 1050 20th Street,
(916) 447-4040, http://azuldowntown.com. RFH

Best place to party
with local celeBs

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NEWS

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y
cooked bna
Louisia
Folks

Admission
$10

Come for the fosoidc,
stay for the mu

Yemaya Salsa Dance Company
With different bars and restaurants offering
salsa-dance nights, Sacramento’s Latin dance
scene is thriving. However, if two left feet
have kept you from diving in, the Yemaya
Salsa Dance Company’s instructors are here to
help. Their salsa, bachata and kizomba lessons
will transform even the klutziest mover from a
wallflower to a skilled and confident dancer.
Learn how to spin, dip your partner and do
footwork in eight-week workshops that double
as socials. Dance lessons and new friends—
that’s something to kick up your heels about.
1791 Tribute Road, Suite B; (916) 524-0211;
www.yemayasalsa.com. A.H.

Attention, gold diggers: Tired of waiting around
for DeMarcus Cousins to respond to your D.M.?
Then get off Twitter and into that dress you
borrowed from your best friend—The Park
Ultra Lounge is calling your name. The Park
is a posh indoor-outdoor, upscale nightclub
designed to pressure Sac’s semicelebrities into
splurging on VIP booths and bottle service.

al
c
o
l
,
h
s
e
fr
crawfish

Best place to get smooth moves

Best use of the shazam app

The Park Ultra Lounge

BEFORE

Rub elbows with Urijah Faber, or take shots
with your favorite Sacramento Republic FC
player—even though you probably don’t
know his name. Come ready to compete,
because beautiful women from all over
the region flood the club, some in search
of sugar daddies. Or some just to have a
good time. 1116 15th Street, (916) 442-7222,
www.theparkdowntown.com. R.R.

TICKET PRICES ARE $20.00 FOR GENERAL ADMISSION, $15.00 STUDENTS,
SARTA MEMBERS, MILITARY AND SENIORS, AND $12.00 FOR GROUPS OF
SIX OR MORE. EASY FREE PARKING AVAILABLE.
TICKETS: 916-451-5822 OR ORDER ONLINE AT WWW.CALSTAGE.ORG

continued from page 45
eclectic in Sacramento. Sometimes it’s run by
the students, sometimes by a virtual deejay,
and sometimes it just plays white noise. You
never know what you are going to get. If you
don’t like one song, just wait, the next will
be totally different. What other radio station
goes from a deep They Might Be Giants track
to Underoath (Christian hardcore) to local
favorites Cake? Certainly not that corporate
Jack one. www.facebook.com/kyds91.5. G.G.

Best party for
feeling funky fresh
Motown on Mondays at LowBrau
Los Angeles, Honolulu, Chicago, Austin and
other cities are already part of the action
for good reason: Motown rules. Back in
2009, Motown on Mondays (a.k.a. MOM)
was a small San Francisco dance party,
and now it’s spread to a weekly, multicity
destination event. Sacramento got its own
this summer at LowBrau, where DJ Epik
spins timeless classics—“Ain’t No Mountain
High Enough,” “Move on Up,” “I Can’t
Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”
are mainstays—with spirited remixes that
easily keep the party going until 2 a.m. on a
Monday. 1050 20th Street, (916) 706-2636,
www.motownonmondays.com. J.B.
50 | SN&R | 09.11.14

Check out our website
to get great deals on
concerts at Ace of
Spades, Assembly and
Harlow’s.

NO
SERVICE
FEES!

W W W. N E W S R E V I E W.C O M

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916.442.3927

Enrollment
exp. 09/30/14
Fee!

I www.capitalac.com

Conveniently located at the corner of 8th & P
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fa
it
h
t
n
i
s
e
B tage fashion
vin
by SHOKA

SHOKAS@newSreview.cOm

“I

remember when we used
to dress like that,” a grayhaired stranger at the
Sacramento Antique Faire says
with a smile to Phoebe Verkouw.
The porcelain-doll faced 32-yearold is wearing a vintage blueand-white print dress from the
’50s—the kind with a tiny waist
and a full skirt to the knees—and
her blond hair is carefully hairsprayed into a sunny bouffant.
She stands out like a time traveler
from the mid-20th century even
in the middle of a market with so
much vintage stuff, but this is The
Dress Fiend blogger Verkouw’s

everyday wardrobe, and more and
more people can’t help but notice
that she’s making a mark on the
local fashion scene.
The Dress Fiend website began as a
hobby for Verkouw in 2012. Her mission:
“To spill all of my frugal thrifting secrets
and prove to people that high end designer
pieces are hiding at your local thrift,
consignment, and vintage stores.”
But to her, it’s also more than just
pretty clothes.
“I hid away for a long time,” Verkouw
says about a darker time in her life when
she was depressed. But after deciding to
live by the philosophy to dress to impress,
“I started shining.” And opportunities
began opening up for her.

Phoebe Verkouw,
The Dress Fiend

continued on page

61

Found at articLe
conSignment
$50
Found at FreeStYLe
cLothing exchange
$12
Found at
Sacramento
antique Faire
$10

Found at
Sacramento
antique
Faire
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Found at thriFt toWn
$9.99

Found at aLameda
antique Faire
$20
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antique Faire
$5

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awww, poor pug! Lucky pup, SpLaSh hound uSa
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s&f
continued from page 55
The art-history graduate and Crocker Art
Museum employee says she uses her body as a
canvas, and has been emulating her icons—the style
of Audrey Hepburn and the self-portrait creativity
of Cindy Sherman—in her blog posts for the past
two years. Then, Good Day Sacramento noticed and
invited her on the show for some fashion segments.
Then, Thrift Town noticed and began to pay her
to blog on its website. Crossroads Trading Co.
noticed, too, and she hosted a fashion event for the
store in April.
At the Antique Faire, Verkouw is turning plenty
of heads in her blue frock—only $12 from the SPCA
Thrift Store, she points out. She spots an exquisite
peach lace dress with a beaded neckline, and tries it
on over her dress in the vendor’s booth. Four people
go out of their way to gush over how perfect it looks
on her. “You have to get it!” one of them says.
Later, a little redhead wearing hot-pink Hello
Kitty sweatpants runs up to Verkouw holding up
a napkin.
“I know who you are!” the girl trembles with
excitement, like she’s meeting a Disney princess.
Someone wrote “The Dress Fiend” on the napkin
for the girl. “Can I have your autograph?” Verkouw
is flattered. She obliges and goes on her way, then
turns back.
“Do you want to take a picture with me
for my Instagram?” Verkouw asks the girl.
The redhead nearly implodes from happiness
(proof: http://instagram.com/thedressfiend).
Then, other nearby shoppers ask for a photo
with Verkouw, too. She’s a virtual celebrity just for
her style.
She finally slips away from all the picture
taking, but immediately encounters a powderblue restored Triumph convertible, which
perfectly matches her ensemble in era and hue.
She can’t resist sneaking a photo with the classic
car, but then, the owner walks up and Verkouw
apologizes. The owner’s reaction? “Want to sit
inside?” He opens the door and another opportunity for the Fiend. http://thedressfiend.com. E

BEFORE

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NEWS

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Writers’ picks
Best thrift sifting
Thrift Town’s VIP Rewards Program
The folks at Thrift Town seem to use any
excuse to discount their merchandise. Name
another retail chain that hosts an annual sale
on Dr. Seuss’ birthday, for example. For years,
monitoring the deals required watching for
newspaper ads, keeping a discount card in your
wallet and checking the sign at the front door
to see which colored price tags were 40 percent
off on that particular day. But Thrift Town
recently changed the game with its VIP Rewards
Program. The free service tracks purchase points,
emails coupons and sends alerts on upcoming
sales. Sign up and you’ll never miss another
Dr. Seuss discount again. Various locations,
www.thrifttown.com. B.C.

Best Beyond-creepy
doll collection
Antiques & Collectibles Marketplace
The room is packed floor to ceiling, hoarder
style, with old dolls. Thousands of unblinking eyes stare back at you. This goes beyond
creepy into the arms of awesomeness, and it’s
one of two rooms at Antique & Collectibles
Marketplace dedicated to antique and vintage
dolls. It’s like a fascinating side show with a
dose of history, because it provides a glimpse
into the daily lives of little girls from long ago
and all over the world—France, Germany and
parts of Asia, from Victorian times to the late
20th century—and what they cradled and shared
fake tea with. Some baby dolls are straight-up
ugly with faces that are hard to imagine a little
5-year-old “mother” could love, and others are
as big as a 5-year-old. Who’s buying those?
Now that might be creepy. 501 N. 10th Street,
(916) 446-1122, www.tace.com/vendors/
antiqafair.html. S.

Best of sacramento

|

Best place to work
to maintain your cool

Best reason to visit florin road

Good Stock Boutique

Let me explain my weed-smoking habits: I don’t
smoke weed. I take baby, vaporized tokes a
few times a month. I’m the wimpiest stoner
in America. Too much weed makes me feel
dizzy and near cardiac arrest. Seriously. I once
pulled a Maureen Dowd and hid in a dark room
for hours because of an averse reaction to some
dabs. That’s why I like Florin Wellness Center:
They don’t laugh at me when I tell them that
I want to be “barely high.” I just want a light
buzz so I can watch something crappy on HBO,
like White House Down. Medical marijuana:
Nothing numbs the pain of Roland Emmerich’s
bogus auteur theory better. Anyway, FWC is the
perfect spot for any canna-curious Sacramentan,
with flavorful flowers that’ve obviously been
harvested right and which proffer a legit buzz.
There’s even a customer-loyalty program! At
the rate I purchase pot, I might get a free gram in
2024. 7047 S. Land Park Drive, (916) 706-0563,
www.florin-wellness-center.com. N.M.

Florin Wellness Center

It’s unfortunate, but cool people need jobs, too—
or at least a little something until their deejaying
careers take off. And cool people don’t have
office jobs. If they aren’t baristas, they probably
work in retail. And if they work retail in Sac,
then they probably are at Good Stock Boutique.
The secret to this hip, urban, vintage-style store’s
success is that it employs cool people. Up-onfashion, well-coordinated people. Let’s just say
none of them probably has a Kohl’s card. The
employees here have a sense of comfort and
confidence in their style. They’re not only salespeople, but walking mannequins of cool, subtly
suggesting, “Buy some shit, and maybe you’ll
be cool, too.” Sacramento Downtown Plaza,
547 L Street, Suite 1095; (916) 440-9700;
http://goodstockboutique.wordpress.com. R.R.

Best five-star pet day spa
Splash Hound USA
My name is Bernie the Pug. I pretty much sleep
all day, but my owner, SN&R co-editor Nick
Miller, is making me break away from siesta
to whip up this shout-out for Splash Hound
USA. So, here we go: I’m particular about my
mani-pedis, or who’s cleaning my junk, so when
I saw that Splash had five stars on Yelp, I just
had to try it. Its groomers are gentle, especially
when they go after all those hard-to-reach spots,
like the folds on my flat face. Or my butthole.
But what’s really cool is Splash also has a
self-washing station, so now I never have to take
a bath in the kitchen sink again. Humans prep
food in there! Plus, Splash sells a lot of natural
treats, not like Petco and Pet Extreme and all
the imported crap they’re trying to pawn off as
snacks. The place is open seven days a week—
which means I should be going there every day,
right, Dad? 1908 P Street, (916) 642-8700,
www.splashhoundusa.com. B.P.

A RT S & C U LT U R E

Best fashion curation
Racks Boutique
You could stick to one fashion era when stocking
up your closet—but that’s kind of boring, right?
Really, it’s more fun to mix things up and pick
outfits that reflect your mood, your relationship
status or your current state of sanity. Racks
Boutique is a fashion time traveler’s dream. The
small store is packed with a carefully curated
collection of vintage duds that, on any given day,
range from early-1900s steampunk-style dresses
to 1950s Grace Kelly frocks to 1970s-era prairie
dresses. You wouldn’t eat the same food every
day, would you? Then why confine yourself to
just one decade, sartorially speaking? 1822 24th
Street, (916) 736-2853, www.facebook.com/
pages/Racks-Boutique/257189801067178. R.L.

Puling back the curtain & doing the show that YOU have always
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morning ‘cause you’ll never know what will happen next!
Upcoming special guests:

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inny Lazzaretto and his assistant Rufina
Pedroza make all the pasta at Hook &
Ladder Manufacturing Co. by hand. No
machines, no short cuts. On a recent Wednesday
afternoon, they lay strips of flattened dough on
a table, place lumps of filling atop, trim and
slice, then roll it all into little dumplings. The
end result is the restaurant’s daily pasta
special, a treat made of purple-maize
and chili-powder dough filled with
smoked gypsy peppers and ricotta.
Boil, add sauces, plate—what
you end up with is a piquant,
creamy, awesome little
cappellacci.

Pat Martin’s been a Major radio Player
in sacraMento since joining KrXQ in the
late ’80s. sn&r readers voted the 98
rocK host “best radio voice.”
photo by darin smith

continued from page 65
Just don’t ask Lazzeretto how to
spell that.

out of a box, no pasta extruders—and
every night there are menu regulars like
cavatelli (they look like tiny hot-dog
buns), rigatoncini (larger tubular pasta) or
risotto. He says this dish should be a little
grainy and retain the rice’s structure—not
porridge-y—but also be creamy. “I feel
like risotto is very misunderstood.”

“So many names,” he says, then sighs.
“I spell check everything.”
Lazzaretto isn’t Hook’s head chef—
that’s Brian Mizner, the guy in charge of
this month’s Farm-To-Fork Gala Dinner
on the Tower Bridge. He’s just another
unsung hero hiding in a Sacramento
kitchen and kicking some ass. In his case,
with pasta.

But he’s also daring: A couple weeks
ago, he made a squid-ink pasta stuffed
with Dungeness crab.
When he’s actually cooking pasta for
himself, Lazzaretto says he’ll make the
amatriciana that he learned at Masque:
stewed tomatoes, cured pork, bay leaf,
cheese. It’s spicy, tasty. Or you might see
him grabbing takeout at La Fiesta Taqueria
or Taqueria Maya’s, two Mexican spots on
the grid’s perimeter.

Just try Hook’s beet linguine, with its
earthy noodles gently dressed in a garlic
cream sauce. People demand that dish.
“It’s not coming off the menu any time
soon,” Lazzaretto admits.
The 29-year-old got his pasta schooling at Masque Ristorante in El Dorado
Hills, where he says chef Angelo Auriana
(who's now in Los Angeles at The Factory
Kitchen) would yell at him a lot. And also
teach him a few secrets.

He may not have time for taco lunches
soon: Lazzaretto Pasta Co., a new business
he’s raising capital for, could become a
small pasta-production and takeout business on the grid in the coming year.

Masque was an interesting place,
because so many top-notch local chefs—
Mizner, Ginger Elizabeth Hahn, Matt
Masera at Mother—got a start in the place.

For a guy who says he invents all these
fascinating and delicious pastas “out of
boredom,” you might say Lazzaretto’s
life is about to get a lot more boring.
1630 S Street, (916) 442-4885,
www.hookandladder916.com.
E

These days, Lazzaretto’s known for
classic, honest and simple flavors. He
and his team make everything at Hook &
Ladder the old-fashioned way—nothing
BEFORE

Brianna Abeyta is a hard person to get in contact
with—unless you are an injured wild bird. That’s
because Abeyta works nine to 12 hours a day as
the Wildlife Care Association’s facility manager,
the second largest wildlife rescue in the state. Most
of the 500-800 animals at WCA are birds, and the
31-year-old is utterly devoted to nursing them back
to health. “This is a field you are throwing youself
into the fire, and you are working crazy-long hours,
and you are doing it all because this little creature
is dependent upon your help,” she said. She’s
been volunteering and working at the nonprofit
for most of her adult life, and now she oversees
the operations at WCA, which relies on volunteers
and funds from the public—funds which were
dangerously low earlier this year. With a budget
shortfall of about $70,000, the WCA was weeks
away from closing its doors and having to euthanize
all of its wards. But the Sacramento SPCA and the
city both donated $10,000 each—plus some private
donations—giving the birds and other animals a
second chance. “I’ll continue to do [this] for the rest
of my life. It means more to me than anything in the

As the president of Fem Dems, Alexandra
Reagan’s gearing up for a busy election season.
The purpose of the California-based political
nonprofit, according to its mission statement,
is to “fight disenfranchisement both within the
Democratic Party and the community at large”
by way of electing feminist-minded candidates,
soliciting feminist participation and better defining
so-called women’s issues. Locally, the group is
presided over by Reagan, who also works with
the Environmental Council of Sacramento and
studied child development and ethnic studies at
Sacramento State University. Whatever her role,
Reagan approaches her outreach and advocacy
duties with sharp smarts, unbridled cheerfulness
and an impassioned commitment to change. It’s
a winning combination. Election-winning, to be
exact. www.femdems.org. R.L.

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Writers’ picks
continued from page 67

BEST THINGS SacramENTaNS Say
Humans of Sacramento
Like the New York-based original, Humans
of New York, this Sacramento-based Tumblr
captures life in the 916 with simple yet compelling portraits and concise insights. There’s the
dreadlocked young man with a somewhat pained
expression pining for love: “My girlfriend is in
Chicago. I miss her more than I’ve ever missed
anyone in my life. I won’t be happy until I get
her. But I won’t get her until I’m happy.” And
the elderly man in the tie-dyed T-shirt musing
on his life’s mistakes: “I’ve been homeless. I
did fifteen years in Angola prison. I’ve had two
heart attacks and a stroke. If I had the chance to
do it all over again, I’d do it exactly the same
… but with less emotional conflict.” Or, there’s
this guy, smoking a cigar: “The kingdom of
heaven is real, and it’s within you, so spend
more time working on your soul and less time
focusing on the things of this world.” The
picture of Sacramento documented here is at
once thoughtful, emotional and totally chill, bro.
http://humansofsacramentoca.tumblr.com. R.L.

BEST do-GoodEr
Shahera Hyatt, California Homeless Youth Project
Shahera Hyatt knows what it’s like to be a kid
and not know where she’s going to sleep. At
multiple points during her adolescence, she and
her family found themselves without stable housing in Sacramento. As a teen, Hyatt bunked

with friends and juggled school around work, not
the other way around. She had no other choice.
Those experiences have informed the 29-yearold’s work as director of the state’s Homeless
Youth Project, where she champions a population
that doesn’t always rate a lot of political attention, even among other advocacy groups. Over
the past five years, Hyatt has become a leading
voice on the topic, crisscrossing the country to
address national conferences and policy makers,
and entertaining bids to work for the president.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone with more
policy expertise on youth homelessness, but it’s
when she peppers in her own backstory or hands
the mic to former homeless youth that the audience
snaps to attention. “Young people experiencing
homelessness and other ‘marginalized’ communities often have the strongest voices around,” she
recently told The Advocate, “we just have to get
out of the way and make space for them to speak.”
www.cahomelessyouth.library.ca.gov. RFH

BEST mISuNdErSTood arENa foE
Craig Powell, Eye on Sacramento
I don’t like to feel bad for people I cover in the
news, but City Hall watchdog Craig Powell got a
raw deal this year. Here’s what went down: STOP,
or the notoriously acronymed anti-arena group
Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, wanted
to put the arena subsidy to a vote. They screwed
that up. Powell and a new group, Voters for a Fair
Arena Deal, came onboard later in the process,
knowing full well that STOP janked things but

feeling they had legal legs to stand on. We all
know what happened: The city clerk disqualified
the signatures, a judge then threw them out. Those
were BS moves. What stunk for Powell was that
the opposition earned a reputation of being incompetent and unorganized. But Powell and his crew
at Eye on Sacramento are big on details and as
thorough as anyone in questioning City Hall. That’s
more than you can say for the traditional media in
this town. www.eyeonsacramento.com. N.M.

Sacramento native Brie Larson first drew notice
for her role as the sarcastic daughter to Toni
Collette’s manic mother on the Showtime comedy
The United States of Tara. It was her starring role
as a depressed, disaffected youth counselor in the
2013 indie drama Short Term 12, however, that
earned her raves. And the 24-year-old’s résumé
is only getting more impressive. Later this year,
she’ll appear in Basmati Blues, a comedy about
a scientist genetically modifying rice (?!), also
starring Donald Sutherland. In 2015, catch her
in The Gambler, a thriller about a homicidal
drifter that also stars Mark Wahlberg and Jessica
Lange. Whatever the role, Larson imbues an earthy
wisdom and a hint of subtle, but potent comic
brilliance. R.L.

occer fever reached a boiling point
during the 2014 FIFA World Cup
Brazil. And nowhere else in the
United States was there a greater
hotbed of fandom than in Sacramento.

by Jonathan Mendick
jonathanm@newsreview.com

Sacramento’s
soccer craze

This past summer, Sacramento consistently
landed in the top 10 markets of World Cup
viewership, and the Sacramento Republic
FC fans shattered the United Soccer Leagues
Pro’s attendance record. Among some of
Sacramento’s notable ultra-fans and tireless
organizers are Manny Camacho, who runs a
summer league for adults who want try out a
pickup game; R.J. Cooper and Andre Barnes
Jr., founders of the Tower Bridge Battalion,
Republic FC’s raucous supporter club; and
Drew Farmer, president of the Sacramento
chapter of the American Outlaws, the U.S.
Men’s National Team supporter club.

continued on page

pRooF tHat
You'Re no. 1

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PHOTO BY wes davis

old scHool
Hand claps

tHese team
coloRs
don't Run
team swag
pRoves Fan
allegiance

HYdRation
is KeY

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PHOTO BY wes davis

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So, what’s gotten into this town exactly?
“I think the national excitement is drawing the
fans,” said Farmer, who’s also a capo, or chant
leader, for the Tower Bridge Batallion. “You’re
seeing it all over ESPN—I think it’s a national
trend—but I also think you have this innate, natural soccer village here in the Sacramento region.”
There, it’s official: We’re a soccer village
now. Perhaps that new realization will make a
little more sense with a quick a look at the city’s
rich soccer past, full of great players growing up
in—and choosing to play around—the area over
the years.

sending the team past Japan onto the semifinal
round of the Olympics (the team unfortunately
failed to medal after losing to Spain in the
semifinal, though).
Other soccer stars with Sacramento ties include:
former Elk Grove Pride players Megan Rapinoe
and Stephanie Cox, now U.S. Women’s National
Team regulars; Lisa Wrightsman, Sacramento
street-soccer team Lady Salamanders’ founder,
player, and coach of the United States at the
Homeless World Cup; and Miguel Ángel Ponce,
the Sacramento-born player who represented
Mexico at the World Cup in Brazil this year.

That means reaching all the way back to 1996
when Nigerian professional soccer player Stephen
Keshi chose to come to Sacramento to play for
the now-defunct Sacramento Scorpions of the
also defunct USISL Select League. Why is that
important? Keshi has managed Nigeria’s national
football team since 2011, leading it to win the
African Cup of Nations in 2013 and reach round
16 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.

And, in the present, the Republic FC—a frontrunner to be the next MLS expansion team—is
coached by U.S. Men’s legend, Preki. No real
soccer fan could forget his game-winning goal
from 25 yards away against Brazil in the 1998
CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal, could they?

Jump ahead to 2000, when Rio Americano
High School alum and Major League Soccer
player Sasha Victorine scored arguably the
biggest penalty kick in U.S. Men’s National Team
history. His kick was the game-clinching one,

“I see youth teams everywhere, I see men’s
pickup teams, I see jerseys everywhere, all the
time,” Farmer said. “I think we’re starved for
something else besides basketball at a professional level. I think it’s a soccer-mad region.” E

So, don’t be surprised if Sacramento’s
“village” raises future stars whose names will be
chanted at future World Cups.

Off the Wall has existed as an indoorsoccer league for 20 years now, but
its retail shop, Extreme Soccer Store,
is also one of the best places in town
to buy legit soccer gear. Proof: On
the day of the inaugural Sacramento
Soccer Day in 2013, I went to pick
up the U.S. Men’s National Team
jersey I’d special ordered, and the
store clerk said, “You just missed it:
Norwich City FC’s goalie just came
in here to get gloves, because he
forgot his.” That’s right, an English
Premier League goalkeeper shopped
here. And for the thrifty, an Extreme
Soccer outlet located inside the Off the
Wall Soccer arena (5 Wayne Court)
offers clearance items. 2381 Fair Oaks
Boulevard, Suite 3; (916) 973-1751
928 Pleasant Grove Boulevard,
Suite 150 in Roseville; (916) 773-4625;
www.offthewallextreme.com. J.M.

Best sactown anthem
‘Nine One Six’

reLax, the poSeS at aha yoga WiLL
Leave you caLmer, not more competitive.

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09.11.14

There are few things that get crowds
pumped like local anthems. Remember
Cake’s “Arco Arena” getting
Sacramento Kings fans excited—even
though the song is just an instrumental?

Now, we formally nominate Mr.
Hooper’s (formerly Crazy Ballhead)
recently released track “Nine One Six,”
as the official new Sactown anthem
that should be played at sporting
events. Seriously, who wouldn’t want
to dance and sing along to its catchy
hook over feel-good beats? “Nine,
one, six: Do you hear me clearly? / I
represent it daily, monthly, yearly.”
Bonus: The music video offers sweet
aerial shots of Sactown and well-known
locals dancing. www.youtube.com/
watch?v=tNbMGRArf0k. J.M.

Best way to die at
a sporting event
Donut Bacon Cheeseburger at Raley Field
Baseball season is over, but take notes
for next spring. Maybe the Sacramento
River Cats are down 5-0, bottom of the
seventh inning, and you decide some
self-mutilation is the only thing that
will make you feel better. Don’t bother
with another beer—order the Donut
Bacon Cheeseburger. It’s exactly what
it sounds like: A bacon cheeseburger,
with two doughnuts for buns. The result
is both delicious and horrifying—sweet,
salty, meaty, cheesy, soft and chewy
all at once. I could only eat a quarter
before I felt sick. Full disclosure: I also
ate two doughnuts—one with bacon—
earlier that day. 400 Ballpark Drive
in West Sacramento, (916) 376-4676,
www.rivercats.com. J.B.

you’re not tripping—that reaLLy iS a ginormouS
animatronic beaSt ShoWing up in your mini goLf.

Best powered-down yoga
Restorative classes at Aha Yoga
Is it OK to admit we’re a little
burned out on intense, power, hot,
sweaty, pass-out yoga? Can we
allow space for yoga that lifts us up
instead of wringing us out? Pencil in
one of Inez Kwiatkowski’s restorative yoga classes onto your training calendar. This challenging,
but somehow restful hour leaves
you feeling like you worked out
and took a nap at the same time.
5275 Sunrise Boulevard in Fair
Oaks, (916) 966-9642, www.aha
yogafairoaks.com. B.C.

(or bats?) hanging from the ceiling,
and plenty of coffins and skeletons
to set the kitschy, spooky mood.
It basically feels like a Halloween
store that plays new and old top
40 music (“Devil Inside”? How
appropriate). Kiddies wearing
glow jewelry and facepaint dancing on the ninth hole is common.
It beasts, I mean beats, getting
sunburned or freezing at the
standard outdoor, windmill-filled
mini golf courses. Protect that
palor! 12401 Folsom Boulevard in
Rancho Cordova, (916) 294-0000,
www.monsterminigolf.com. S.

Best run from the cops

Best place for
underage cluBBing

Sacramento Police Department’s
Run With a Recruiter jogs

Monster Mini Golf

Every Friday morning, at the
crack of dawn, right outside the
Sacramento Police Department
headquarters
on
Freeport
Boulevard, is about the only time
it’s actually OK to run from the
cops. The idea came about when
a veteran police recruiter thought
it made sense to help department
hopefuls snag some face time with
officers. Now, months later, these
weekly “Run with a Recruiter” jogs
have drawn a solid cult following.
“I’ve never seen a police agency do
something like this,” said Officer
Doug Morse, a spokesman for the
department. “It is a great program.”

Send children into a dark building and give them metal clubs
to swing around. This is roughly
the concept behind Monster Mini
Golf in Rancho Cordova. Very
rough, actually: It’s an indoor
18-hole miniature golf course that,
like your neighborhood adolescent
goth, is black on the inside, and
it’s illuminated by black lights and
more glow-in-the-dark paint than
you ever knew existed. There’s
a towering animatronic beast that
growls and a lurching three-headed
dog that barks its heads off at passersby, plus human-sized vampires

BEFORE

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NEWS

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Lest you suspect Morse’s
comments as professionally motivated, a look at a photo posted
on Twitter from the department’s
July 11 jog confirms the buzz: 20
smiling runners stained with sweat,
a crowd that Morse says sometimes includes high-ranking deputy
chiefs and police captains, as well
as members of the department’s
SWAT team. “You can talk to
anyone in our organization about
what it’s like to work at our department,” Morse says. Or you can
just run. 6 a.m. on Fridays at the
Sacramento Police Public Safety
Center, 5770 Freeport Boulevard,
Suite 100; (916) 808-0880;
www.sacpd.org; www.twitter.com/
sacpolice. RFH

Best Bloody
sports experience
Field House American Sports Pub
I’m going to try not to spend the
next 100 words slobbering over
the bloody mary at Field House
American Sports Pub, the best spot
to watch sports that’s not on the
grid. Let’s see how I do. The 411:
It’s 32 ounces, $16 and served on
weekends only. The mix is made
by Preservation & Co., and the
vessel is a Mason jar. Garnishes
are what Guy Fieri might refer to
as off the chain, bro. Including: A
beef slider and a bacon-wrapped

Best of sacramento

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sausage on sticks, plus a prawn
and pickled egg and veggies. As
Fieri might also say: It’s not just
a cocktail, it’s a meal. I want to
make clear that this is not a Fieri
type of hangout, though. It’s fun,
authentic, tasty. And drinking the
bloody here while you’re still drunk
from the night before is a truly
American experience. 1310 Fulton
Avenue, Suite D; (916) 487-1045;
www.fieldhousesac.com. N.M.

Healthy Habits Studio turns 21 this
year. Housed in an old Victorian
on J and 23rd streets, the classes
here are often filled with the fit
and beautiful, but it doesn’t mean
the instructors aren’t also kind to
fat, klutzy Groupon-using visitors. I imagine that they would
be nice to all. The trainers turn
boot camp fitness classes into
chatty sessions—probably with the
intention of keeping your mind off
the immense pain in your body.
The conversation veers from what
people ate that they shouldn’t
have (boring) to comics and ninjas
(exciting!). They are all modern,
too; you can reserve your spot
in classes online. 2224 J Street,
(916) 444-7729, www.healthyhabits
studio.com. G.G.

User error
Raise your hand if you were able to recognize the shape of a six-shooter
when you were a kid. It’s so common to see tons of guns in movies and TV
shows—and sometimes in person—that it’s normalized in our culture, but
Gale Hart’s current body of work at Elliott Fouts Gallery zeros in on our
MIXED MEDIA relationship with them. In the clever and beautifully
constructed “Til Death Do Us Part,” a six-shooter
mirrors itself, leaving the user looking down the barrel, too. In another,
“Cannot Grasp,” a pistol has shiny steel thorns sprouting from its handle.
These objects are meant to destroy targets, but as Hart’s work clearly
explains—and reiterates—they also destroy the user.
Where: Elliott Fouts Gallery, 1831 P Street; (916) 736-1429; www.efgallery.com.
Second Saturday reception: September 13, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Through October 2.
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dresses to impress
Summer vacation is over. Sorry, gang. But perhaps that is why so many
galleries around town have stepped up and scheduled exceptional exhibitions for September, not to mention that Sac Open Studios is happening—
where the public is invited into artists’ studios all over the region for two
weekends of the month. One place to visit studios is in the Verge Center
MULTIMEDIA for the Arts, where the gallery is also exhibiting the
ambitious work of Los Angeles-based artist Mary
Younakof. Her 343 Dresses: The Chromatic Convergence Project consists of
343 dresses she made in just as many hues. Younakof wore the tulip-skirted
dresses all over Los Angeles juxtaposed against matching walls, looking
childlike and the picture of innocence in ordinary places, making them look
extraordinary.
Where: Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S Street; (916) 448-2985; http://vergeart.com.
Opening reception: Thursday, September 11, 6 to 9 p.m.
Second Saturday reception: September 13, 6 to 9 p.m.
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

Tom Leaver’s paintings look like a place one may have visited in a
dream. His work shows that moment when a sleeper is waking, and
PAINTINGS her bleary-eyed consciousness intersects with
her crisp subconscious vision, and there she is,
watching that beautiful place of elation melt, right before it’s wiped
from her memory forever.
In contrast to Leaver’s ethereal canvases are Mark Emerson’s
bold geometric paintings. Rectangles are spliced into triangles and
parallelograms, and they seem to converge, dancing with each
other in a pattern.
Both are abstract, but each tickles different parts of the brain.
And they make quite a pair.
Where: JayJay, 5520 Elvas Avenue; (916) 453-2999; http://jayjayart.com.
Second Saturday reception: September 13, 6 to 8 p.m. Through October 25.
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; or by appointment.

What can a person do when no one is listening and he has
something to say?
In the case of Billy, the deaf son in
by
Kel Munger
an incredibly literate and verbal family,
sometimes the only way to be heard is to stop
trying to talk. In Capital Stage’s fantastic
production of Nina Raine’s Tribes, we are
invited to question everything we think we
know about communication and language—
which, we quickly discern, are not the same
thing at all.
Billy (the amazing Stephen Drabicki) has
been raised without access to deaf culture or
sign language—a status that his intellectual
and overbearing father (Lol Levy) believes
lets him be an individual rather than a disabled
person, a position with which his devoted
mother (Jamie Jones) and talented but troubled
siblings (Elizabeth Holzman, Benjamin
T. Ismail) apparently agree.

5

its creation, mental health, and the difference
between familial support and familial smothering, Tribes asks us to imagine ourselves in the
midst of a variety of tribal configurations.
At what cost does membership in our tribe
come, and what price do we exact from those
we love in order to keep them close to us?
Are adapting, accepting and surrendering to a
disability all the same thing? These issues—plus
plain old family dysfunction—all get a smart and
emotional workout in this don’t-miss play.
Ω

Depression-era bank robbers Bonnie Parker
and Clyde Barrow lusted after fame and glory
(and money), and they’re still getting both
80 years later. First
the dynamic criminal
duo was portrayed in
film and song, then in
a recent 2011 short-run
Broadway musical
that’s wound its way to
Sacramento’s Runaway
Stage Productions.
The secret to the
success of any Bonnie
and Clyde story is
selecting a sizzling pair
to portray the doomed
gun-toting lovers, and
Runaway Stage scores
big with two talented
leads for this production
of Bonnie & Clyde.
Jennifer Zimney
and David Holmes give
winning performances
of this captivating gruesome twosome, projecting the perfect pitch of chutzpah, pizazz and
chemistry. The two also manage to inject some
sympathy for these cop-killing criminals with
the help of a storyline that looks back on their
childhoods as well as the hardships of life
during the Great Depression, where the duo
became unlikely heroes to many.
The two leads are supported by a large cast
and a talented live orchestra, and surrounded
by picture-perfect era costumes and creative
sets that include historic photos projected onto
wooden pallets. The musical itself contains a
number of good songs, but could do with trimming a few to tighten the production as well as
keeping all the songs reminiscent of the era.

W W W. B E E R S B O O K S . C O M

BUY - SELL - TRADE
915 S Street | 916.442.9475

PhOTO By Kevin AdAmSKi

So, despite being an intelligent, empathic
and creative soul, Billy is effectively left out
of the conversation at home.
Then, he meets the smart and beautiful
Sylvia (Brittni Barger), the child of deaf
parents who is herself going deaf. She introduces him to signing and to deaf culture—but
is also dealing with the tumultuous emotions
that accompany losing her hearing.
To begin with, the play is so full of smart,
provocative language—of both the British
English and sign-language variety—that
it almost demands to be seen more than
once, simply to savor the poetry and ideas.
Add to that an outstanding—and perfectly
cast—ensemble, led by Drabicki and the
luminous Barger, with thoughtful staging and
airtight direction from Cap Stage’s Producing
Artistic Director Jonathan Williams, and this
becomes a production that will be difficult
to get tickets for and no doubt the subject of
lengthy discussion for some time to come.
Touching on issues of self-determination, the
value of culture and language’s position in

This photo surely
captures the
disconnection between
language and
communication.

Long-distance dedication
Love is Strange
In Ira Sachs’ warming and wistful tragi-romance
Love is Strange, John Lithgow and Alfred
Molina play longtime lovers who are getting
by
Daniel Barnes legally married after 30-plus years together.
Almost immediately after the wedding,
Molina’s George gets fired from his job as a
choir teacher at a Catholic school, and with
Lithgow’s frail artist Ben out of work, they
also lose their cozy Manhattan apartment. No
one in their circle of friends wants to take in
both Ben and George, so they split up while
Ben searches for a new place, a living situation
that proves more prolonged and difficult than
expected.

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St. Michael’s Independent
Catholic Church
Our sister parish, St. Michael’s
is located in Rocklin.
Visit stmichaelsrocklin.org or
call 916-415-8688 for more info!

Independent Communities in the Catholic Tradition

Congratulations!
Parallax Inc. of Rocklin, CA

The California Manufacturers & Technology
Association congratulates Parallx Inc. for being
recognized as a Champion of Manufacturing.

“Please, anything but
Poughkeepsie.”

With a commitment to their employees and
innovation, Parallax Inc. brings tremendous
prosperity to the region’s hard working families.
If you’d like to support the Champions of
Manufacturing program and receive updates,
go to CMTA.net.

This contemporary story has an ancestor in
the wonderful 1937 Leo McCarey tearjerker
Make Way for Tomorrow, starring Victor
Moore and Beulah Bondi as a financially
destitute couple forced apart and passed
around by their selfish children. In their separation, this reserved and repressed old couple
discovers a burning need for each other that
was never realized or expressed in their many
decades together.
The crucial difference is that Make Way
for Tomorrow took place in an America just
beginning to recover from the Depression,
a world of limited options and primitive
communications technology. Love is Strange
updates Make Way for Tomorrow for a more
materialistic age, one where living beyond
your means is equated with living in poverty.
Ben and George simply don’t want to leave
Manhattan, and for flimsy reasons that the film
briskly brushes off its lapel. There is not very
much keeping the lovers in Love is Strange
apart besides the weak contrivances of the
script.
Only a shallow, decadent narcissism totally
at odds with the portrayal of Ben and George
as a model couple could explain their acceptance of a prolonged “forced” separation, especially since the film makes it seem like they
are on different planets, rather than different
neighborhoods. It’s reminiscent of the Seinfeld

episode where Kramer breaks up with his girlfriend when she moves to the Lower East Side,
as he’s unwilling to pursue a “long-distance
relationship.” A family member offers to give
both Ben and George free room and board in
Poughkeepsie, but the film condescendingly
portrays her as a brittle, self-loathing space
case, so they decline the invitation despite
Ben’s obviously ailing health.
Unfortunately, the forced nature of the
setup strains credibility to the point where you
step out of the film and begin to interrogate
the narrative. In one particularly emotional
sequence, a lonely George walks out of the
nonstop party house where he’s been crashing,
makes his way across the city to where Ben is
staying, and falls sobbing into his arms. This
scene is one of the centerpieces of the film,
and it’s lovingly played and very affecting,
but I kept wondering why this couldn’t happen
every single day if it was so damn easy. And if
the longing for a sensory connection between
them is so urgent, why not try Skype? Do
laptops not exist in this sun-dappled, fairy-tale
vision of Manhattan artists and intellectuals?
It’s too bad, because otherwise Love is
Strange is a smart and cozy watch, and very
well-acted, especially by the leads. Lithgow
gets the showier part, but he doesn’t overwind
it, instead giving us a beautiful, heart-wrenching slow fade. Molina’s character is the steady
rock in the relationship, and he performs the
same function here, seeping into the cracks
of the film like water into wood. The solid
supporting cast includes Marisa Tomei as an
in-law experiencing destabilization in her own
marriage, and a promising newcomer named
Charlie Tahan as her shy son.

Do laptops not exist
in this sun-dappled,
fairy-tale vision of
Manhattan artists
and intellectuals?
Love is Strange is the fifth feature from
writer-director Ira Sachs, whose Forty Shades
of Blue took home a Grand Jury Prize at the
2005 Sundance Film Festival. However, it is
only the second Sachs film I have seen besides
his awful 2007 movie Married Life, which
wasted several good actors on a tone-deaf
study in plastic cynicism. The Chopin strains
and winter-blanket vibe of Love is Strange suit
Sachs (who co-wrote the film with Mauricio
Zacharias) a lot better, and there is an elegant
confidence to the storytelling and visuals that
felt forced before. Next time, he just needs to
avoid forcing the premise.
Ω

The title refers to the odds against
Mine That Bird, the 2-year-old gelding
that won a surprise victory in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, and the movie tells us how he got
to the winner’s circle with owners Mark Allen
(Christian Kane) and Leonard Blach (William
Devane), trainer Chip Woolley (Skeet Ulrich)
and jockey Calvin Borel (playing himself).
Everybody loves a good sports movie where
the underdog comes from behind, and director Jim Wilson and his co-writer Faith Conroy
don’t blow it. They lay it on a little thick,
perhaps, in presenting all these New Mexico
cowboys as fish out of water among the
snooty racing aristocrats of Churchill Downs,
but it keeps things amusing while we wait for
the big race. Madelyn Deutch adds spice as
Ulrich’s spunky assistant—plus a touch of
beauty to complement the horses. J.L.

this is just another entry in its spreadsheet,
The Avengers minus the monstrous egos.
Gunn juggles several different MacGuffins,
but the only point is to create a through line
to the next movie: Just like everything else in
the Marvel cinematic universe, Guardians of
the Galaxy exists solely to advertise its own
as-yet-unmade sequels. D.B.

In the 1930s, a desperately poor Alabama
couple give up one of their newborn
twins to a childless preacher and his wife (Ray
Liotta, Ashley Judd). Twenty years later, one
has become a rock ’n’ roll superstar, while
the other rebels against following his adoptive
father into the ministry and becomes an impersonator of his lost brother (both played by
Elvis impersonator Blake Rayne). The premise
might have made a good movie, but it would
have to have fallen into less sloppy hands than
those of writer Howard Klausner and director
Dustin Marcellino. The movie is amateurish and
cloying, with an artificial, unlived-in look. Everyone looks fresh from the shower; the paint
on the sets and cars still seems wet. There
are a few good performances, though—Liotta,
Judd, Joe Pantoliano, Seth Green—and Rayne
is earnest. J.L.

Boyhood

A talented teenage cellist (Chloë
Grace Moretz) lies in a coma after
an auto accident kills her family. She has
an out-of-body experience, reliving her
past and her budding romance with a local
rock star (Jamie Blackley) while deciding
whether she wants to live or die. Adapted
by Shauna Cross from Gayle Forman’s novel
and directed by R.J. Cutler, the movie (like
the book) uses the out-of-body gimmick to
inject suspense and a supernatural charge
into what would otherwise be a pretty bland
and unexceptional story. But only churlish
folks will pick nits: The movie is an efficient
and satisfying teen tear-jerker, well-acted
by beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes
and speaking sensitive thoughts. Joshua
Leonard and Mireille Enos play Moretz’s
loving parents, Stacy Keach her distraught
grandfather. J.L.

Guardians of the Galaxy

BEFORE

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NEWS

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Innocence

Smuggled into theaters last weekend
after lying on a shelf for several years,
Hilary Brougher’s low-bar hurdler Innocence
turns out to be a nifty piece of teenage neofeminism, at least until the scratch marks
from a troubled post-production start to
emerge in the final act. Sophie Curtis gives a
nuanced lead performance as Beckett Warner

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A high-school football team with the
longest winning streak in the history
of any sport—151 games over 13 years—has
to cope with what happens when it finally
loses a game. Based on the story of De La
Salle High School in Concord, Calif., and coach
Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel), the movie
can blame sportswriter Neil Hayes’ book for
its clumsy and borderline-nonsense title
(how does a game “stand tall,” exactly?),
but the dreary parade of nonstop clichés
has to be laid squarely at the feet of writers
Scott Marshall Smith and David Zelon (the
latter is also one of the movie’s producers).
Caviezel does what he can, as do Laura Dern
as his loving wife and Michael Chiklis as his
loyal assistant, but the tsunami of triteness
overwhelms them. Director Thomas Carter
provides some decent game scenes between
the banalities. J.L.

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A RT S & C U LT U R E

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SN&R

In last year’s hollow and dutiful Thor:
The Dark World, the climax took place
in a red cloud. In James Gunn’s busy and
dispiriting Marvel comic-book adaptation
Guardians of the Galaxy, it takes place in a
purple cloud. Progress! With an ensemble
cast that includes a talking raccoon and a
sentient tree, Guardians of the Galaxy is
more ostensibly a comedy than other Marvel
properties like Thor and Captain America,
but it offers roughly the same amount of
jokey and juvenile bickering as those other
films. Far from upending the Marvel formula,

2

When the Game Stands Tall

A med-school dropout (Daniel Radcliffe), licking his wounds after a failed
relationship, becomes infatuated with the
cousin (Zoe Kazan) of his college roommate
(Adam Driver)—but she’s in a stable relationship with her longtime boyfriend, leaving
our hero “just a friend.” Filmed in Canada as
The F Word (a better title), the movie plunges
deep into When Harry Met Sally… territory,
yet it survives thanks to crackling dialogue
(by Elan Mastai, from a play by T.J. Dawe and
Michael Rinaldi); brisk, light direction (Michael Dowse); and, most of all, the effervescent chemistry between Radcliffe and Kazan.
Kazan, who should have hit it big with Ruby
Sparks two years ago, is particularly good—
quirky, charming, a true original. What is it
going to take to make this delightful woman
the star she deserves to be? J.L.

Gift certificateS to local
merchantS for up to 50% off

3

If I Stay

4

What If

w w w. n e w s r e v i e w. c o m

A seemingly limitless stream of pure
empathy runs through Richard Linklater’s transcendental movie event/social
experiment/life-affirming headtrip Boyhood.
At the end of the film’s first seamlessly
interwoven vignette, 6-year-old Mason (Ellar
Coltrane, literally growing up on camera)
and his family are moving away from their
sleepy Texas town. As the car drives off, Mason’s playmate speeds up on his bike for one
last glimpse, barely visible through the tall
grasses of fading memory. This is the first of
many forgettable friends who will flit in and
out of Mason’s young life. Late in the film,
when Mason is a college-bound teenager, an
adult offers that post-adolescence is “where
you find your people,” and Mason can barely
refrain from rolling his eyes. The miracle of
Boyhood is that we empathize with everyone
in this scenario, even with the nameless
and forgotten playmate starring in his own
alternate-universe movie life. D.B.

(what a name!), a smart and curious girl who
gets shuttled off to a cloistered Manhattan prep school following the death of her
mother. Almost as soon as Beckett arrives, a
student jumps off the roof and dies, and the
overwhelming profusion of sinister, over-theshoulder glares suggests that the mysterious
“alumni book club” led by a school nurse (Kelly
Reilly) is behind it. Innocence is inconsistent
throughout and falters badly in the stretch,
but it’s an intriguing near-miss, with a more
active and complex heroine than typically seen
in teen-lit adaptations. D.B.

Shop local
and Save

2

ENDS THUR., 9/11

Dolphin Tale 2

The Identical

CALVARY

FOR ADVANCE TICKETS PLEASE VISIT FANDANGO.COM

Winter, the Florida dolphin with the prosthetic tail (who plays herself)
languishes when her companion dies of old age. Winter must be paired
with another female or she’ll be confiscated by the USDA (what the feds plan to
do with her remains unexplained in director Charles Martin Smith’s script). The
original cast is back: Nathan Gamble (whose only facial expression is a sullen
glare), Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Kris
Kristofferson, plus a guest cameo from Bethany Hamilton, the amputee whose
life was chronicled in Soul Surfer. The movie is sweet, well-intentioned and
family-friendly, like an extended episode of the old Flipper TV series. Frankly,
it’s a little bit dull. But what the he—er, heck; its heart’s in the right place and
the Florida sunshine is exhilarating. J.L.

A band of explorers, led by a scholar
specializing in the history of alchemy
(Perdita Weeks) and guided by a Parisian
street hustler (François Civil) ventures into
the catacombs under the streets of Paris in
search of the philosopher’s stone, that mystical rock that can turn base metals to gold.
Then all hell breaks loose—literally. Or apparently? Frankly, it’s hard to tell. The script
by director John Erick Dowdle and his brother Drew is so murky, and the brothers’ grip
on their narrative is so shaky. Even murkier
and shakier is Léo Hinstin’s cinematography,
recycling yet again the insufferable cliché
of found video footage. (Dear God, will we
never be rid of The Blair Witch Project?) The
movie boasts little suspense, few scares, and
no stars—only a gang of hungry unknowns
eager to be in a hit. J.L.

STARTS FRI., 9/12

- Richard Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE

The Admiral: Roaring Currents

As Above, So Below

- Stephen Whitty, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

TAINMENT WEEKLY

Magic In The Moonlight

3

2

THEDROP

“BREEZY & FUNNY.” - Chris Nashawaty, ENTER-

Korean director Han-min Kim recounts
the 1597 battle of Myeongnyang, in which
13 ships of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty under Admiral Yi Sun-shin won an amazing victory over
hundreds of invading Japanese ships. It was
a feat to rank with, even surpass, Trafalgar
and the Spanish Armada—but it’s unfamiliar
history to most Westerners. Unfortunately,
Kim and his co-writer Cheol-Hong Jeon do little
to clarify the context or characters involved.
The stakes, however, are clear as a bell: the
Japanese are coming, there’s a whole bunch
of them, and only a few Koreans are ready to
sail against them. The battle itself takes up
nearly half the movie, and there Kim really
delivers the goods. It’s a spectacular whopper,
blazing with blood and thunder, and served
up with first-rate editing and terrific special
effects. J.L.

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82

|

SN&R | 09.11.14

DEVILLEVACAVILLE #DEVILLEVV

Ready, refreshed and still raging
Rise Against returns with a new
album and a louder political voice
War. Climate change. Occupy. Terrorism. Religion.
No topic is too challenging for Rise Against,
the Chicago-based punk band set to play
by
Janelle Bitker Sacramento’s Aftershock Festival on Sunday.
That’s obvious with the band’s seventh
j a ne lleb@
album, The Black Market, which dropped in
newsreview.c om
July. While Rise Against takes on the aforementioned issues—and then some—frontman Tim
McIlrath also turns inward. The result is unusually personal, exploring how these big, global
problems affect his state of mind.
PHoTo couRTeSy oF RiSe AGAinST

It might stem from the band’s recent hiatus,
which began a year-and-a-half prior to writing
The Black Market. Rise Against’s members went
on vacation, hung out with their families and
more or less ignored music for the first time in
15 years. They returned refreshed, but apparently
still pissed off at the world.
The first single, “I Don’t Want To Be Here
Anymore,” is a prime example of McIlrath’s
new direction, exploring the broad culture of
violence, but also how it feels as an individual
surrounded by it.
“There are so many guns in this country
that it should be concerning to anyone,” says
drummer Brandon Barnes. “We all have kids and
nowadays people are shooting up schools—it’s
pretty terrifying. As parents, that’s something we
want to talk about.”
The music video starts with a couple of
kids in Chicago talking about all the shootings
they’ve seen like it’s no big deal. Then it
quickly cuts between footage from the U.S.,

Stand tall, punks,
stand tall.

Rise Against plays the
Aftershock Festival on
Sunday, September 14
at Discovery Park,
1000 Garden Highway.
Tickets cost $64.50 for
one day or $109.50 for
the weekend. For more
about the band, visit
www.riseagainst.com.

BEFORE

|

NEWS

|

Iraq, Nigeria, Mexico and other violent hubs—
soldiers, police cars, politicians, candlelit vigils,
crying families. Statistics pop up: 1.6 million
people lose their lives to shootings each year;
120,000 dead in the Mexican Drug War; the U.S.
averages one school shooting every five years;
the world has been at peace for 8 percent of
recorded history.
All the while, McIlrath sings: “I don’t want
to be here anymore / I know there’s nothing left
worth staying for.”
The imagery alone makes it one of the
strongest statements the band has ever made.
Naturally, the YouTube comment section is full
of people who say they love Rise Against but
strongly disagree with this video’s message.
Those same fans will probably have a tough
time accepting the rest of The Black Market.
“A Beautiful Indifference” attacks critics of the
Occupy movement: “Protests are drumming
while you turn your nose and roll your eye /
Knee-jerk reactions so ingrained / Judging from
an armchair.”
Likewise, the acoustic track, “People Live
Here,” moves through several heady topics, but
McIlrath’s first lines address blind religion: “My
God is better than yours / And the walls of my
house are so thick / I hear nothing at all.”
The band isn’t worried about losing fans,
though. Riling people up is just part of Rise
Against.

“We all have kids and
nowadays people are
shooting up schools—
it’s pretty terrifying.
As parents, that’s
something we want to
talk about.”
Brandon Barnes
drummer, Rise Against

Barnes says the band found its political voice
gradually over time. Its members certainly had
political opinions when they first got together
in their 20s, but the band was mostly about
having fun. Then they started seeing the world
and growing up. McIlrath is the youngest at 35;
guitarist Zach Blair is 39, and Barnes and bassist
Joe Principe are both around 40 years old.
“We realized we could use our voice to give
back to charity work and have lyrics that touch
on sensitive topics that we thought were important,” Barnes says. “That became a whole other
part of the band—and equally important.”
Ω

Henningsen Lotus Park, 11 a.m., $15-$169
Hit the river for the American River Music
Festival, featuring three days of music starting
at 11 a.m. on Friday, September 12. With more
than 30 performances, including one from
Auburn’s Hannah Kile (pictured)—one of 10
artists featuring in Friday night’s “Musician’s
Showcase”—there’s a sound for all musical
tastes. If traditional folk is to your liking, check
out Patchy Sanders. Followers of The Voice
will recognize 2011 contestant Rebecca Loebe,
and fans of Warren Zevon might enjoy Michael
Gaither. International acts include Canada’s
FESTIVAL the Bills and Sweden’s
Baskery. The festival lasts
through September 14. 950 Lotus Road in
Lotus, www.americanrivermusic.org.

Memorial Auditorium, 7 p.m., $35-$52.50

Palms Playhouse, 8 p.m., $15

There is no shortage of folk musicians in
porkpie hats and suspenders peddling
Americana, but few have had
FOLK
the staying power of the Avett
Brothers, who have been covering the banjolaced nostalgia beat since the late 1990s.
Following the 2013 release of Magpie and the
Dandelion, the band is on a national tour, but
only Sacramento and Berkeley will be treated to an opening set by songstress Brandi
Carlile, whose winsome, spirited tunes you
may recognize from just about every episode
of Grey’s Anatomy. This Friday-night folk
fiesta is an all-ages event, too, so look out
for some youngsters in little suspenders.
1515 J Street, www.theavettbrothers.com.

—Deena Drewis

The Bonanza King Band is a Winters-based
country band that plays old-timey, rockabillyinfluenced swing and Western tunes. Actually,
the style the group plays—which is sometimes
more specifically called “California country”
or “Western swing”—is an upbeat country
subgenre predating rockabilly. It’s equal parts
ragtime, swing and honky-tonk. Confused?
COUNTRY Think the scene Merle
Haggard helped build. Seeing
this band of five (sometimes six) musicians
play live on a Saturday night will take you back
to a 1940s Central Valley barn dance. This is the
group’s CD-release show, so don’t forget to
bring a little cash to keep the dance going on in
your home. 13 Main Street in Winters,
www.bonanzakingband.com.

Starlite Lounge, 9 p.m., $5
This art project began in 2008, and since
then, Dead Leaf Echo has dropped a series of
EPs full of sculpted shoegaze and semigoth,
ambient dream pop. Its latest EP, true.deep.
NEW WAVE sleeper, has been met
with rave reviews, and
now the New Yorkers are deep in a relentless
national tour. At live shows, Dead Leaf Echo
is known for projecting heavy imagery to
accompany its imagery-heavy, literary lyrics. Nabokov is a frequently cited influence.
Local indie-pop band Soft Science rounds
out out the bill, along with fellow shoegaze
bands All About Rockets of Sacramento and
Slowness of San Francisco. 1517 21st Street,
http://deadleafechonyc.com.

Woodstock was billed as “An Aquarian
Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music.”
Foodstock, a kickoff celebration for a month
of Farm-to-Fork Festival events, is billed as
“An Aquarian Exposition” and “1 Day of Food,
Music & Community.” Woodstock featured
performances by the Who, Jimi Hendrix and
Janis Joplin. Foodstock features psychedelicfolk jam band Mind X and cover band Wonder
Bread 5 (pictured). Woodstock had hippies
drinking cups of “brown acid” and a food
shortage. Foodstock will have hipsters drinking
craft brew and eating roasted pig—and it all
benefits Sacramento Food
FESTIVAL
Bank & Family Services and
Soil Born Farms. 400 Ballpark Drive in West
Sacramento, www.sacramentofoodbank.org/
foodstock.html.

Third Space, 8 p.m., call for cover

EDM is huge right now, but back in the ’70s,
electronic music wasn’t really the soundtrack
for big-room dance parties. Kraftwerk, one
of the godfathers of modern electronic music,
played gentle, emotional, avant-garde tunes.
So when describing Trans Destiny as electronic, think more along the lines of Kraftwerk.
Trans Destiny’s actually a one-man project
ELECTRONIC from a Sacramento guy
named Gabe, who used
to be in a band called Pistol Pete. He builds
atmospheric, trippy walls of sounds and beats
that have a nice groove, but aren’t really there
to get people to cut a rug. It’s more music to
chill out with. Soak in the nuances of multiple
layers of sound. 3520 Stockton Boulevard,
www.transdestiny.bandcamp.com.

Anaïs Mitchell’s bewitching soprano soars and
swoops through tender folk sketches full of
tense, emotional sweep. She got off to a quick
FOLK start when in 2003, she won an
award at the Kerrville Folk Festival
at the age of 22. Hymns for the Exiled followed
a year later and caught the attention of Ani
DiFranco, who signed her to Righteous Babe
Records for two albums—including 2010’s
ambitious concept album Hadestown. Her
latest album of originals, 2012’s Young Man in
America, paints a picture of youth—“hungry,
hungry, running every which way”—and
bubbles with desperate abandon on tracks
like the Elliott Smith-esque “Dyin Day” and
“Coming Down.” 946 Olive Drive in Davis,
(530) 341-0540, www.anaismitchell.com.

—Aaron Carnes

Mondavi Center, 8pm, $18.50-$92
In his native country of Brazil, besides the
great Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso is one of
the most popular and longest-running artists from the country still actively touring
and releasing albums. Now 72 years old, he
has amassed quite a devoted legion of fans in
the United States as well, and headlines venues with capacity crowds all over the country. After winning nine Latin Grammy and
two Grammy awards, as well as releasing
WORLD dozens of full-length albums and
live records, he is certainly one
of the most prolific living songwriters from
South America. Come get a cultural lesson
from Brazil’s greatest export. 9399 Old Davis
Road in Davis, www.caetanoveloso.com.br.

—Eddie Jorgensen

—Chris Parker

—Jonathan Mendick

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One local doctor says we’re warming
to the idea of cannabis treatment

T

Tinctures convinced the
doctor that marijuana has a
place in medicine. These are
glycerin drops containing
cannabinoids, the active ingredients in cannabis, typically
’13
placed under the tongue and
absorbed into the bloodstream.

hough California and
other states have legalized cannabis for medical
purposes, the medical establishment — and, consequently,
many patients — have been
slow to recognize marijuana as
a legitimate treatment option.
That conception has evolved
significantly over the past
year, thanks to neurosurgeon
Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN. Last
August, Gupta presented a
documentary titled “Weed”
that examined medical marijuana and featured a young
girl whose seizure disorder
diminished with cannabis. This
March, CNN aired a follow-up,
“Weed 2: Cannabis Madness,”
in which Gupta explored the
political issues.
Since those shows, at least
one Sacramento clinic has experienced what one of its doctors
calls “an influx of seriously ill
patients”: people with cancer,
multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s
disease, as well as autism and
ADHD. He’s even had the parents
of a 9-month-old with seizures
seek the same treatment that
helped the girl in “Weed.”
“Those two documentaries
have really educated a lot of
people,” says the doctor, who
asked to remain anonymous
because some of his fellow
physicians take a dim view
of clinics where cannabis is
prescribed.
The doctor understands
the skepticism, but he says
it’s based on misinformation.
He’s practiced in California
for more than 40 years, and
after state voters passed the
Compassionate Use Act in
1996, he educated himself
about cannabis.

“D octors are not
against marijuana
— before
[tinctures],
we couldn’t
prescribe it.”
Physician who says cannabis tinctures
have allowed him to give his patients
a consistent dose of medicine

“Doctors are not against
marijuana — before this,
we couldn’t prescribe it,” he
explains. “What could we tell
patients? Smoke two joints and
go to bed? There was no way
for me to tell them what’s a
consistent dose.”
But tinctures allowed him a
way to prescribe his patients
a consistent dose as well as a
consistent product, because
once a patient finds a brand
name that works for his
symptoms, he can go back to
it again and again.
Cannabinoids can produce
different effects, including
stimulating appetite, easing pain
and actually reducing seizures.
“I’ve been in practice for
over 40 years and never
known of a substance that
could actually heal the brain,”
the doctor says. “This is why
I’m so excited.”

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3RD BEST
’13
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’13

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’13

|

NEWS

|

’13

420 MD

MEDICAL MARIJUANA EVALUATIONS

SUMMER COMPASSION SPECIAL

39 49

$

Capital Cannabis Guide coverage is sponsored by
its advertisers. This content was produced by the
Custom Publications division of News & Review.
BEFORE

Safe, Professional, Compassionate.
The next step in medicinal cannabis
Now that you have received your physician’s recommendation for medicinal cannabis, what’s
the next step? The specialists at Abatin Wellness encourage you to come by and see for yourself.
We provide ample parking and safe access to our clean and secure, state-of-the-art facility. Our
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Chrystal Martinez’s soccer
dreams ended with a knee
injury, but medical marijuana
has helped control her pain.

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or many athletes, a careerthreatening injury is devastating.
For Chrystal Martinez, it’s been
transformative in a positive way.
Chrystal, a soccer star from
Sacramento, started at midfielder for
Mexico in the 2012 FIFA Under-20
Women’s World Cup. She played last fall
at Phoenix College, hoping to transfer to
Arizona State University.
During a game in October, she leaped
to head the ball to goal, got thrown off
balance and landed badly. The sound was
chilling: “Like the crack of your knuckles,”
she says, “only 50 times louder.”
Chrystal tore all the ligaments in
her right knee. She had surgery in
late November. The recovery regimen
included medication and rehabilitation.
She took the painkillers, but as she was
alone in Arizona, she wasn’t as good
about getting herself “the right medical
attention” otherwise.
“Those prescription pills, I call them
crazy pills, because — man — I was really
heavily addicted to them and I really
almost could have killed myself,” says
Chrystal, who’s 20.
In January she moved back home to
Sacramento, where she had a second
knee operation in July.
“This time around, I didn’t take any
pills,” she says.
Instead, Chrystal switched to cannabis.
She consulted a physician who prescribes
medical marijuana and joined a collective.

She smokes a pain-relieving strain, sometimes supplemented with edibles at night.
She acknowledges that “it took some
convincing” for her parents — “older,
traditional Mexican-Americans” — to
accept cannabis. However, after her
struggle with prescription drugs, “they
know in my state of mind I’m better off.”
Though recovering well, Chrystal
doesn’t plan a competitive comeback,
unless as a coach. Instead, she’s started
her own business — a pet-sitting service,
Paws for the Cause — while resuming her
education at American River College.

“Those prescription pills,
I call them crazy pills,
because — man — I was
really heavily addicted to
them and I really almost
could have killed myself.”
Chrystal Martinez,
medical marijuana patient

“Things happen for a reason,” she
says, “and I know it sounds kind of crazy,
but I wouldn’t take the injury back if I
could. My whole focus was soccer — that
was really my whole identity. This injury
has really shown me who I am other than
soccer, and I really like the person I am.”

Capital Cannabis Guide coverage is sponsored by its advertisers. This content
was produced by the Custom Publications division of News & Review.

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SN&R | 09.11.14

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Cannabis Guide.
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film Cast Away, Tom Hanks plays an American FedEx executive who is stranded
alone on a remote Pacific island after he
survives a plane crash. A few items from
the plane wash up on shore, including
a volleyball. He draws a face on it and
names it “Wilson,” creating a companion
who becomes his confidant for the next
four years. I’d love to see you enlist an ally
like Wilson in the coming week, Aries. There
are some deep, messy, beautiful mysteries
you need to talk about. At least for now,
the only listener capable of drawing them
out of you in the proper spirit might be
a compassionate inanimate object that
won’t judge you or interrupt you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): As far as I

know, there has been only one battleship
in history that was named after a poet.
A hundred years ago, the Italian navy
manufactured a dreadnought with triplegun turrets and called it Dante Alighieri,
after the medieval genius who wrote The
Divine Comedy. Other than that, most
warships have been more likely to receive
names like Invincible, Vengeance, Hercules
or Colossus. But it would be fine if you
drew some inspiration from the battleship
Dante Alighieri in the coming weeks. I think
you will benefit from bringing a lyrical
spirit and soulful passion to your expression of the warrior archetype.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If you go to

a 7-Eleven convenience store and order
a Double Big Gulp drink, you must be prepared to absorb 40 teaspoons of sugar.
But what will be an even greater challenge
to your body is the sheer amount of fluid
you will have to digest: 50 ounces. The fact
is, your stomach can’t easily accommodate more than 32 ounces at a time. It’s
true that if you sip the Double Big Gulp
very slowly—like for a period of threeand-a-half hours—the strain on your
system will be less. But after the first half
hour, as the beverage warms up, its taste
will decline steeply. Everything I’ve just
said should serve as a useful metaphor
for you in the coming week. Even if you
are very sure that the stuff you want to
introduce into your life is healthier for you
than a Double Big Gulp, don’t get more of it
than you can comfortably hold.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): If you

surrender to the passive part of your
personality, you will be whipped around by
mood swings in the coming days. You will
hem and haw, snivel and procrastinate,
communicate ineptly, and be confused
about what you really feel. If, on the other
hand, you animate the proactive side of
your personality, you are likely to correct
sloppy arrangements that have kept you
off-balance. You will heal rifts and come
up with bright ideas about how to get the
help you need. It’s also quite possible you
will strike a blow for justice and equality,
and finally get the fair share you were
cheated out of in the past.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his 1982 martial

arts film Dragon Lord, Jackie Chan
experimented with more complex stunts
than he had tried in his previous films.
The choreography was elaborate and
intricate. In one famous sequence, he had
to do 2,900 takes of a single fight sequence
to get the footage he wanted. That’s the
kind of focused attention and commitment to detail I recommend to you in the
coming weeks, Leo—especially if you are
learning new tricks and attempting novel
approaches.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1786,

Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard
were the first explorers to reach the
top of 15,781-foot Mont Blanc on the
French-Italian border. They were hailed
as heroes. One observer wrote that the
ascent was “an astounding achievement
of courage and determination, one of the
greatest in the annals of mountaineering.
It was accomplished by men who were not
only on unexplored ground but on a route
that all the guides believed impossible.”
And yet today, 228 years later, the climb
is considered relatively easy for anyone
who’s reasonably prepared. In a typical
year, 20,000 people make it to the summit.
Why am I bringing this to your attention?
Because I suspect that you are beginning
to master a skill that will initially require
you to be like Balmat and Paccard, but will
eventually be almost routine.

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bRezsny

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Those who

invoke the old metaphor about the
caterpillar that transforms into the
butterfly often omit an important detail:
The graceful winged creature is helpless
and weak when it first wriggles free of
its chrysalis. For a while, it’s not ready
to take up its full destiny. As you get
ready for your own metamorphosis,
Libra, keep that in mind. Have plans to
lay low and be self-protective in the
days following your emergence into your
new form. Don’t try to do loop-the-loops
right away.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): According

to my analysis of the astrological omens,
you Scorpios are currently the sign of the
zodiac that is least likely to be clumsy,
vulgar, awkward or prone to dumb
mistakes. On the other hand, you are the
most likely to derisively accuse others of
being clumsy, vulgar, awkward or prone
to dumb mistakes. I recommend that you
resist that temptation, however. In the
coming week, it is in your selfish interests
to be especially tactful and diplomatic.
Forgive and quietly adjust for everyone’s
mistakes. Don’t call undue attention to
them or make them worse. Continue to
build your likeability and fine-tune your
support system.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

You have cosmic permission to be bigger
than life and wilder than sin. You have a
poetic license to be more wise than clever.
And you should feel free to laugh longer
than might seem polite and make no
apologies as you spill drinks while telling
your brash stories. This phase of your
astrological cycle does not require you to
rein yourself in or tone yourself down or
be a well-behaved model citizen. In fact,
I think it will be best for everyone concerned if you experiment with benevolent
mischief and unpredictable healing and
ingenious gambles.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): For

over 2,000 years, Chinese astronomers
have understood the science of eclipses.
And yet as late as the 1800s, sailors in
the Chinese navy shot cannonballs in
the direction of lunar eclipses, hoping to
chase away the dragons they imagined
were devouring the moon. I have a theory that there’s a similar discrepancy in
your psyche, Capricorn. A fearful part
of you has an irrational fantasy that a
wiser part of you knows is a delusion. So
how can we arrange for the wiser part
to gain ascendancy? There’s an urgent
need for you to stop wasting time and
energy by indulging in that mistaken
perspective.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Squirrels don’t have a perfect memory of
where they bury their nuts. They mean
to go back and dig them all up later, but
they lose track of many. Sometimes trees
sprout from those forgotten nuts. It’s
conceivable that on occasion a squirrel
may climb a tree it planted years earlier. I see this as a useful metaphor for
you to meditate on in the coming weeks.
You are on the verge of encountering
grown-up versions of seeds you sowed
once upon a time and then forgot about.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): On a

German TV show, martial artist Jackie
Chan performed a tough trick. While
holding a raw egg in his right hand, he
used that hand to smash through three
separate sets of four concrete blocks.
When he was finished, the egg was still intact. I see your next task as having some
resemblances to that feat, Pisces. You
must remain relaxed, protective and even
tender as you destroy an obstruction that
has been holding you back. Can you maintain this dual perspective long enough to
complete the job? I think you can.

you can call rob brezsny for your expanded
weekly horoscope: (900) 950-7700. $1.99
per minute. Must be 18+. touchtone phone
required. Customer service (612) 373-9785.
and don’t forget to check out rob’s website at
www.realastrology.com.

09.11.14

photo by lauran fayne worthy

by ROb

For the week of September 11, 2014

The science
of equality
The gender gap in the STEM fields—
science, technology, engineering and
mathematics—is a big-time national
issue. For the past five years, evolutionary biologist and UC Davis professor
Jonathan Eisen has been trying to do
his part to help the cause: rejecting
invitations to scientific conferences
with a disproportionate number of
male speakers. He’s even created an
acronym, YAMMM, for when he inexplicably finds himself in “Yet Another
Mostly Male Meeting.” On his blog,
www.phylogenomics.blogspot.com, he
highlights certain cases, notes where
improvements can be made and
propels the diversity conversation
forward. Eisen, who teaches various
microbiology courses, took a few minutes to chat about childcare, snarky
abstracts and old, white men.

You are a man.
Why care about
women in STEM?
[Laughs] There are multiple answers
here—there’s the historical reason and
the rational reason. The historical reason
is that my mom is a scientist—she’s a
chemist—and heavily involved. She ran a
program for women in science at George
Washington University, so I had heard a lot
about these issues in the past. … The more
rational part of it is that I’m a bit obsessed
with fairness in scientific activities. I’m
involved with various movements that try
to make sure people get credit for their
work. One aspect of fairness in science
is clearly purposeful and accidental bias
toward particular groups. I’ve gotten more
and more interested in this in maybe the
past five years, partly because of blog
posts I started writing.

Was there a catalyst
in particular?
The thing that made me think about this
as a systemic issue was at a conference
maybe 12 years ago in Lake Arrowhead,
down near Los Angeles. I go to conferences, but can’t sit through all the talks. So
I took a break and went outside, and there
was a woman with a little toddler. The
toddler padded over to me—I love kids so
I was making goofy faces—and I asked the
woman if she was there for the meeting, if
she just skipped many of the talks to take
care of her kid.
She said, “Oh no, I’m not actually
attending the meeting. I’m hired to be
a nanny for a graduate student who is
attending the meeting.” As it turns out,
University of Wisconsin had a program
for graduate students who had kids and
a fund that would pay for a nanny so
they could attend the conference. … In
that one moment, I realized there were
massive challenges to women in scientific
fields that I had never thought of—it
just never occurred to me that having
a kid and going to a conference would

be a problem—and that you could do
something about it.

And now you focus on
conferences. Why?
The main reason I do this is because it’s
just so easy to fix if you just a give a shit.
If you just care at all about your field and
about society, these things are really
easy to fix. For example, I got invited
to a conference a few years ago. I was
already skeptical—it was in some fancy
resort in Hawaii, and I cringe at these
things because they just smell of wasting
government money and that just riles me
up. Anyway, I went and looked at the list of
speakers and the organizers, and it was
something like 26 people involved. Of them,
25 were male. It was completely ludicrous.
I was literally flabbergasted. It just showed
that either the people involved were explicitly and purposefully biased, which is bad,
or clueless about their accidental biases,
which is also bad. I wrote a blog post that
was really not polite.

Oh?
I submitted an abstract to give at the meeting: “A Quantitative Analysis of Gender Bias
in Quantitative Biology Meetings.” [Laughs]
They did not accept me as speaker. Long
story short, they got eviscerated on the
web and [their members] hate me now. But
the next year, their meeting had an almost
50-50 gender ratio. It seemed like a good
meeting, it didn’t seem to cost anything
extra. They were just being lazy, lame and

probably biased before. It’s not like we
can fix all gender bias in the sciences by
fixing conferences, but they’re prominent.
It’s where people get recognized for their
work, young people can get exposure, and
it literally can take 20 minutes to fix them.

You mentioned
childcare earlier.
What are some other
practical ways to make
conferences more
women-friendly?
The first thing you need to do is invite a
diversity of people, and not only old, white
men. That is what a lot of conferences
are—they invite the famous people.
Because of historical reasons and on
average, as careers progress, more and
more women drop out of scientific fields,
the most famous, established people are
frequently white males. If the point of your
meeting is to have famous scientists speak,
I say, “Fine. I think we as scientists should
boycott your meeting.” That’s just stupid.
The point of a scientific conference is way
beyond that, to give people experience,
to let new people give talks, to learn new
things, to let people meet each other, to
have a diversity of opinions in fields representative of the audience—all those things
together make a good conference.
Ω